I’m changing over the web hosting service that I use. I’m getting too tired of not being able to access or use this blog and my servers; they’re flaking out a bit too much, so I’m trying a new service.

The downside to this is that I’m probably going to mess up my SQL databases during the move. And a lot of my links might not work in the future.

So… bear with me and if this thing doesn’t work for a while, check back in a few days or a week.

Here’s what passes for political rhetoric and “class” among the right wing:

Go ahead and watch it, it’s very short.

What really gets me is Coulter’s little smirk at the end of her disgusting statement. By trying to make it “funny”, she’s setting up for the future backlash; now she can say that “hey, I was just joking”.

But that’s the kind of people that have taken over the conservative movement in America- mean, vicious people who make jokes about wanting perfectly good Americans who care about their country (and who happen to be Democrats) being killed.

She’s not joking. In Ann Coulter’s world, in the world of the extreme nutjob right wing that’s taken over America, they DO wish that people like John Edwards, and Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama and Howard Dean and anyone who stands in their way would be killed in a terrorist attack.

It would serve multiple purposes for them. It would take out opponents who stand in the way of their vision of America, an America where the government snoops through your bank accounts and emails and phone calls and library records and everything without a warrant; an America where the government can arrest you and hold you without any charges, without access to a lawyer, without ever actually proving that you did anything wrong.

It’s an America that does anything it wants in the world, so long as it leads to more access to foreign oil for American companies, an America that ignores its friends and allies, an America where political opposition is silenced by accusations of treason.

Coulter and her ilk for a long time have been selling the notion that Democratic Party members who oppose the Bush Administration policies are treasonous backstabbers who want bad things to happen to Americans.

It’s a weird conundrum; writing about her only gives her exactly what she wants, which is attention.

The problem with this type of “debate” is that the Democrats go from trying to argue their points (which are good ones) to having to defend themselves against an unrelated, side issue of whether or not they are sufficiently “patriotic” or if they really want what’s best for America.

It’s typically something that happens when one side either isn’t very good at debating, so they make unrelated-to-the-subject attacks, or when they basically have a losing argument, so they change the terms of the fight to make it about whether or not someone is “patriotic” or a good person and good American.

For example, you’ll note in my above litany of Republican sins that I never said the Republicans like Bush and Rove were bad people; I just listed the kinds of things that they’ve done (snooping without warrants, etc) and policies they’ve set in the USA. But to counter arguments like the ones I’ve made, rather than talk about the merits of their position or explain why we should set aside the Constitution, they would counter and say that I don’t support the troops, or want to see people killed by terrorists, or some such bullshit like that.

This type of “debate” is what’s ruining America. People like Coulter are dragging this nation down into the swamp.

I don’t care if you disagree with everything I write about the President; that’s fine. I might be 100% wrong on Iraq and warrantless searches and the attempted suspension of the writ of habeous corpus; that’s cool. Disagree away. But when you come along and say “Paul, you’re a scumbag and hate America because you don’t agree with me” then you’re just a buffoon who’s the one that’s truly responsible for the kind of things that’re going wrong with this nation.

Bush and Rove are morons who are making bad decisions for the nation, but I honestly believe that they don’t actually wish ILL upon the United States. They honestly think that what they’re doing is for the best, and that only makes them more dangerous to the future of America.

And that’s the difference between most Democrats and the right wing nutjobs that have taken over the Republican party.

Okay, so I’ve taken the plunge and managed to get a new program installed on my web server. It’s called Gallery, which is appropriate, because it’s a photo gallery program.

It’s a pretty cool program. I also loaded up WPG2, which lets me integrate the photo gallery into this blog.

Well, I just lost most of this post, but what it amounts to is that I’m pretty busy. I intend on messing around with the look of this site, on going through and weeding out lousy pictures (there’s a ton of them in the gallery right now that should probably go), on doing some remodeling here at the place (heat pump/AC installation, redoing bathroom, installing vent into kitchen, etc), getting ready for the 4th of July (I turn into an arsonist and blow up a LOT of fireworks at a friend’s annual bash), the Mariners are going full swing (haha) and Indy is getting over an allergy attack and wanting some quality time in the mountains.

Plus it’d be nice to get a date once in a while!

Anyway, if you want to check out the photo gallery, the URL is http://www.pcox.net/blog/wp-gallery2.php. Enjoy!

Here’s the text of an email I blasted out to everyone in my address book, which is something that I pretty much NEVER do.

Hello to many friends, co-workers, acquaintances, and family.

I don’t often send out big group emails. In fact, I never do, because they usually kind of bug me when I get ‘em.

Most of the time, they’re either an urban legend, a political screed, or some kind of scam (I’m still waiting for my Nigerian fortune to show up in my bank account).

But every so often, you get an email directly from someone you know and trust- and it’s an email that can really mean something in this world.

Hopefully, for all of you, this is one of those emails.

Most of you know (or know of) Kim. Kim and I have remained good friends over the past couple of years since we broke up, and I think very highly of her.

Kim took a trip last year to Vietnam. Kim volunteered for a really interesting organization, basically serving as a missionary for her local church. She stayed and did charity work for several months (in addition to visiting her family still in Vietnam, of course.)

The organization that Kim worked with in Vietnam is called HSCV- Humanitarian Services for Children of Vietnam.

This group was started by an American and his daughter simply because they felt the need to Do Something. They’d gone to Vietnam on a vacation, seen the needs of the kids, and it changed their lives- and now they’ve changed the lives of hundreds of kids.

HSCV is particularly interesting because every penny- every single cent- donated to the organization goes to directly aid the children they serve.

There’s no big fat salaries for the administrators, there’s no organizational overhead; they are a small service organization, keep their costs down, and basically pay for all their costs themselves- using donations they get for direct aid to the children.

For example, when Kim went over, while they asked around and found her a place to stay, she paid for her own rent, her food, her transportation costs, and so forth.

HSCV was happy to have her come and help with translation, teaching, and other work with the kids, but they didn’t give her anything for it; all her costs were up to her.

The point here is that this organization is the real deal. If you donate to them, they’ll use every bit of those funds to aid children- with food, medical care, housing, or schooling.

If you go to their web site at http://www.hscv.org you can see what kind of work they do.

Right now, they’re staging a special funds drive for a little girl named Thao.

Thao suffered some horrible burns when she was 5, and they’ve managed to arrange for her to be able to come to the United States and get some medical treatment that will change her life.

Thao’s scar tissue around what’s left of her fingers is preventing her from even simple tasks, but after the treatment and surgeries, she’ll be able to handle those things.

Imagine not being able to write, or brush your own teeth or get dressed; well, Thao can’t do that right now, but with some help she’ll be able to in the future.

You can donate to Thao. I’m not asking a lot; if you can only give a dollar, that’s one dollar closer to self-sufficiency this little girl with a great attitude will be. (A dollar goes a LOT further in Ha Noi than it does in the USA.) If you can skip a couple of lattes this week you can probably chip in 5 or 10 bucks.

Kim met Thao when she was in Vietnam and says that despite the burns and scars, Thao is a tough, good child. Kim said “She grabbed a special place in my heart.”

I know there’s a million different causes in the world we can donate to. Some are close to home, and I applaud anyone and everyone who helps out in whatever way they can. Some are far away. Some will make a big difference and some will probably
not accomplish anything in the long run.

This is a case, though, where someone I know and trust has not only personally vouched for HSCV, but has gone and worked alongside of them to help children.

This is a case where you can make a real difference- not just now, but for the next 30, 50, even 70 years of someone’s life. Thao has a shot at being able to do so much more for HERSELF.

While it’s great to donate and give a family a big bag of rice, I think it’s even better to donate and give someone the means so they can do more in the future for themselves. You know what they say about “give a man a fish” versus “teach a man to fish”.

Please go to www.hscv.org and consider making a donation.

It’s 100% tax deductible, you can do so quickly and easily via PayPal, and it’s a case where you can send a few bucks knowing that every bit of it will go to a great cause and make a huge difference for decades in someone’s life.

Thank you for your time and your patience in this all-too-long email.

To be honest, I’d rather you don’t forward it on; the point here is that I know you or am connected to you somehow, and that’s why I’m sending it to you; once it goes second or third hand, those people don’t know me from Adam and there’s not much reason
to trust it, and it just becomes another one of those internet junk emails.

Instead, let’s join in a mini-network of connected people and make a little difference in someone’s life.

Thank you again for your time,

Paul

Now, not all charity organizations are overstaffed, or spending too much on admin costs. People working for those charities deserve a good life and fair salary, of course. I don’t mean to slag on the good ones here.

Please consider donating a few bucks- even 3 or 5 dollars per person can add up quickly.