War is Peace

german_cynthia @ 2006-11-26T13:48:00

2006-11-26T19:48:47Z

german_cynthia @ 2006-11-24T18:15:00

2006-11-25T00:15:17Z

german_cynthia @ 2006-11-17T23:42:00

2006-11-18T05:42:27Z

A man driving a big white SUV, license plate Y88 NLX, tried to run me down tonight while I was walking in Bellaire. If you see that car, please call the police right away.

Man, Bellaire used to be a good neighborhood.

german_cynthia @ 2006-07-04T21:15:00

2006-07-05T02:16:24Z

Nice review of Reflexx show

Stag's Head Saturday

2006-06-29T03:16:36Z

REFLEXX will be playing Saturday at Stag's Head: 2128 Portsmouth. No cover, free parking, a nice patio, & great music!

With the Metrik System at 10 - electronica & dance covers.

german_cynthia @ 2006-06-24T23:46:00

2006-06-25T04:49:14Z

Anyone have AOL? Ever tried to cancel?

Pride - 1 of the 7 deadly sins

2006-06-25T04:11:01Z

Pride Festival was great! We had a short set - about 40 min. It was really hot out, but whatever. It was good to see Los Vertigos play, too. I was totally wiped out from the heat after that & had to escape to some a/c. I got a sunburn - boo!

This was kind of humorous: before we started setting up, T. Dane was on stage doing a sound check. She was prancing around demanding this & that. She even asked at one point if there'd be cover from the limo to the stage, which was about 20 ft. I wish we'd stuck around to see her sing (er, karaoke), but oh well.

Pride Houston

2006-06-22T17:32:13Z

If you're looking for something to do this Saturday, come see REFLEXX at the Pride Houston Festival. We're playing from about 2:15 ~ 2:45pm. We'll will be on the Sprint headliner stage - the same one as Taylor Dane - at Lovett Road and Yoakum Street in Montrose, Houston.

Hope to see you out!

REFLEXX at the Concert Pub this Saturday!

2006-06-15T23:29:22Z

Saturday, 6/17/2006 9:30 PM - 1:30
The Concert Pub - 5636 Richmond Avenue @ Chimney Rock, Houston, TX
No cover!

We're very excited about this show! The Concert Pub is a really cool live music venue.

Thanks, Dekan! :-)

Reflexx Saturday

2006-06-08T15:56:50Z

german_cynthia @ 2005-11-19T16:53:00

2005-11-19T23:02:57Z

REFLEXX had its debut last night at the Big Top. We felt like ingenues at a coming-out party. Big Top was packed & everybody seemed to have a good time. We had a blast!Thanks to the Ringwalds for letting us karaoke & for putting us on your site & email. That was extremely nice of you. Thanks also for the kind reviews & nice comments :-) Thanks to everyone (esp Dekan, Carrie, Jennifer, Sam, Bill, Matt, Virginia - I'm so sorry if I forgot anyone!) who came out to support us. We appreciate it!

german_cynthia @ 2005-04-10T01:28:00

2005-04-10T06:28:51Z

in your eyes
the light the heat
in your eyes
I am complete
in your eyes
I see the doorway to a thousand churches
in your eyes
the resolution of all the fruitless searches
in your eyes
I see the light and the heat
in your eyes
oh, I want to be that complete
I want to touch the light
the heat I see in your eyes

german_cynthia @ 2005-04-03T00:38:00

2005-04-03T07:02:50Z

My letter to all about seal hunt, how you can help & links to more info.

This is an issue that I find very upsetting:
the Canadian commercial seal hunt. The number of seals to be killed this year is 350,000; many are pups less than 1 month old. The seals are subjected to horrifically cruel deaths, around 40% are even skinned alive. If you have the stomach for it, there is a </font>video.

The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has set the quotas at an impossibly high 350,000 seals for the past 3 years. These numbers are unsustainable, but that is the point. It seems the real agenda of the DFO is to drive the seals to extinction because they blame them for depleting the cod stocks. As absurd as that sounds, it is the justification for the government sanctioning and even subsidizing the hunt. The real facts are that the seals help keep the fish who prey on the cod in check. The fishing industry is failing because humans are taking all the fish, but it is better for the DFO to scapegoat the seals than to admit to its own incompetence.

As disheartening as all of this is, there is something we can do to to help the seals: put economic pressure on Canada. Please join the boycott of Canadian seafood products. You can take the pledge here. Please also refrain from attending the 2010 Olympics in Canada. In addition, please consider taking action, signing petitions, writing letters & spreading the word. </div>

Sealers attack Sea Shepherd
(3/31/2005)

</div>

More info can be found at:
http://www.seashepherd.org/seals/seals.html
http://www.harpseals.org
http://www.protectseals.org
http://www.stopthesealhunt.com
http://www.girlsgofishing.com/

Thanks for your help & compassion!

Cynthia

german_cynthia @ 2005-03-29T12:21:00

2005-03-29T18:25:46Z

The mass seal slaughter begins today. One of my heroes, Paul Watson, is out there giving the seal-killing monsters hell.

3/29/2004 8:00AM PST REPORT FROM THE SHIP

Our flagship, R/V Farley Mowat, is in the icy waters of the Magdalen islands opposing the seal slaughter where we have documented numerous sealing violations on the ice by the sealing vessel Newfoundland Leader. The Farley Mowat is surrounded by approximately 72 sealing vessels and shadowed closely by the Canadian Coast Guard ice-breaker Amundsen which has a large cage rigged on a derrick with which it appears they intend to swing over the side and board the Farley Mowat.

-------

The merciless mass slaughter of harp seals began today on March 29, 2005. Over 325,000 defenseless seals will be condemned to die by club and gun. Many will be skinned alive – all will suffer agony at the hands of cruel men protected by the full might and force of the government of Canada.

We are here to make a statement of opposition to this horrific mass slaughter. In the past 25 years I have had to make difficult decisions to confront formidable odds, and each time we have saved lives and protected eco-systems. Once again I must make a decision that will place my ship, my crew, and myself in harm’s way – into the heart of darkness, the epicenter of slaughter, the blood-stained nursery floes of the harp seal where humanity converts innocence and beauty into bloody corpses – surrounded by more than 70 sealing vessels and shadowed by the defenses of the government of Canada.

We will make every effort, expend all our resources, and make whatever sacrifices we must, to reach the seals on the ice. We intend to protect them. We intend to be there when the killing starts, to document it and to let the vicious sealers know that they are being watched and that we will not go away. We intend to be good shepherds to the ice loving seals from Greenland.

Our opposition is made up of cowards. From the brutal spiked-booted sealers who stomp through the harp seal nursery bashing seals in the face or across their skulls with spiked clubs, to the cold and heartless bureaucrats who take their orders from colder and even more heartless politicians and hide behind the excuse of following orders.

It is inconceivable to me that these killers and politicians cannot see what we see, feel what we feel – that they cannot have empathy for the mothers and their young on the ice floes and that they can practice, condone, and defend such unspeakable cruelty and such reprehensible slaughter.

We are here to save the seals and they are here to destroy them. There can be no doubt as to which side is right and which side is wrong, for compassionate defense of life is a force of good and sadistic mass destruction of life is a force for evil.

And for what? So some vain woman in the Ukraine can wear a sealskin coat? Or some impotent man in China can eat the penis of a baby seal and believe it will make him virile? Or some misguided and selfish health nut can buy contaminated seal oil capsules as a supplement?

Can any sensitive, ecologically-aware person stand by and ignore these crimes against nature? We cannot. Therefore, we are forced into making difficult decisions in our efforts to expose the killing, the brutality, and the abject cruelty of a slaughter that both disrupts the natural marine ecosystems and drives us even further into the darkness as a species that thrives and thrills to wanton killing and blood profiteering.

Only the cold-hearted and the cynically-minded would argue against the morality of our defense of the seals.

And because you are not one of them, I honour your support. The seals, my crew, and I are grateful for having you back us in this quest to defend life on the ice this spring.

Sincerely,

Captain Paul Watson

Not One Damn Dime Day

2005-01-05T21:30:10Z

Inauguration Day, Silent Protest

Since most of this country's religious leaders don't have the courage tospeak out against the war in Iraq, since our political leaders don't have the moral courage to oppose it, Inauguration Day, Thursday, January 20, 2005 is "Not One Damn Dime Day" in America.

On "Not One Damn Dime Day," those who oppose what is happening in our name in Iraq can speak up with a 24-hour national boycott of all forms of consumer spending.

During "Not One Damn Dime Day" please don't spend money. Not one damn dime for gasoline. Not one damn dime for necessities or for impulse purchases. Not one damn dime for anything for 24 hours.

On "Not One Damn Dime Day," please boycott Walmart, KMart and Target. Please don't go to the mall or the local convenience store. Please don't buy any fast food (or any groceries at all for that matter).

For 24 hours, please do what you can to shut the retail economy down. The object is simple. Remind the people in power that the war in Iraq is immoral and illegal; that they are responsible for starting it and that it is their responsibility to stop it.

"Not One Damn Dime Day" is to remind them, too, that they work for the people of the United States of America, not for the international corporations and K Street lobbyists who represent the corporations and funnel cash into American politics.

"Not One Damn Dime Day" is about supporting the troops. The politicians put the troops in harm's way. Now 1,200 brave young Americans and (some estimate) 100,000 Iraqis have died. The politicians owe our troops a plan -- a way to come home.

There's no rally to attend. No marching to do. No left or right wing agenda to rant about. On "Not One Damn Dime Day" you take action by doing nothing. You open your mouth by keeping your wallet closed. For 24 hours, nothing gets spent, not one damn dime, to remind our religious leaders and our politicians of their moral responsibility to end the war in Iraq and give America back to the people.

Christi S. Ulmer, MA

Clinical Psychology Doctoral Student

Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences

University of Louisville

Democrats Say Bush Lied on Guard Service

2004-09-09T01:17:54Z

Sep 8, 8:56 PM EDT

Democrats Say Bush Lied on Guard Service

By MATT KELLEY
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrats pounced on the latest revelations about President Bush's Air National Guard service Wednesday, saying newly released records show Bush shirked his duty and lied about it.

Bush's spokesmen said the records back up the president's assertion that he fulfilled all of his Vietnam-era military obligations and served honorably.

Meanwhile, the Texas Air National Guard released 128 pages of records on Bush's service from 1968 to 1973, all of which had been previously released by the White House. Two Texas officials said in sworn affidavits that the records were all the Texas Guard had on Bush's service.

CBS reported Wednesday night that it had obtained personal files from one of Bush's Texas commanders saying Bush discussed with him how to avoid drills during 1972. The report on "60 Minutes" said the files were from the personal records of Col. Jerry Killian, who died in 1984.

In the memos, Killian complained of pressure from higher-ups to give Bush positive evaluations and said Bush talked about how to avoid taking a physical exam in 1972, when Bush eventually skipped six months of training and lost his pilot's wings for missing the exam.

With national security and the war on terrorism looming large on voters' minds, supporters of Bush and Democratic nominee John Kerry are attacking each candidate's Vietnam War records. Republicans have accused Kerry, a decorated Vietnam combat veteran, of fabricating the events which led to his five medals. Democrats point to gaps in Bush's stateside Air National Guard service in 1972 and 1973 to say Bush shirked his duty.

The Defense Department on Tuesday released more than two dozen pages of records about Bush and his former Texas unit. They showed Bush flew for 336 hours in military jets after his flight training and ranked in the middle of his class.

The latest records do not shed any light on key questions about Bush's service: whether or where he trained in late 1972 and early 1973, why he skipped a required medical exam and whether he was investigated or punished for skipping the exam and six months' worth of training in 1972.

Pentagon officials said they discovered the documents released Tuesday while performing a more comprehensive search "out of an abundance of caution" in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by The Associated Press.

The newly released records also showed that while Bush says he was in Alabama training with another Guard unit in 1972, his home unit in Texas was participating in the air defense of the southern United States by keeping two jet fighters constantly ready for launch within five minutes' notice.

Democrats said that meant Bush passed on a chance to defend his country. Bush flew the F-102A jets his unit kept on alert but was grounded in August 1972 because of the missed medical check.

"When his unit was placed on a 24-hour alert mission to protect our country from surprise attack, why did George Bush not report for duty?" Democratic National Committee head Terry McAuliffe said in a conference call with reporters Wednesday.

McAuliffe also suggested Bush lied when he said he had released all available records and had fulfilled his Guard obligations.

"Either George Bush was deliberately lying to the American public or he had some type of very severe memory loss," McAuliffe said.

Bush spokesmen scoffed. They said the Pentagon had not done the extensive search Bush ordered and noted that Bush had approval to train in late 1972 with an Alabama unit.

"If the president had not fulfilled his commitment he would not have been honorably discharged," Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said Wednesday.

Adding to the criticism of Bush, a group called Texans for Truth announced an advertising campaign questioning whether Bush ever trained with the Alabama Air National Guard. The advertisement, set to run in several swing states, quotes a retired lieutenant colonel in the Alabama unit who says he searched for Bush but never met him in 1972 or 1973.

Bob Mintz is another of more than a dozen former members of the 187th Tactical Reconnaissance Group who say they never saw Bush train with the unit. Medical records released by the White House show Bush received a dental exam at the 187th base in January 1973.

"I never met the man and I'm sorry I didn't because he's somebody important," Mintz, 63, said in a conference call with reporters Wednesday. Mintz acknowledged Bush could have performed office duties for the 187th without crossing paths with Mintz.

The 128 pages of documents the Texas Air National Guard released to the AP on Wednesday duplicate records Bush released in February. The release also included sworn statements from Texas National Guard officials Travis Evans and Michael Blalock saying the records are the only ones related to Bush in the Texas Guard's files.

© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BUSH_NATIONAL_GUARD?SITE=TNMEM&SECTION=HOME

german_cynthia @ 2004-08-31T22:15:00

2004-09-01T03:16:38Z

Sunshine Patriots

german_cynthia @ 2004-08-25T12:21:00

2004-08-25T17:21:52Z

Some of the people on this LJ are total dicks. I'm not going to allow just anyone to comment anymore. I may even start locking all my posts.

german_cynthia @ 2004-08-23T13:31:00

2004-08-23T18:34:52Z

Belgian three-day horse euthanized. I think it's unacceptable for a horse to die at the Olympics. If they would only make it so the stupid cross-country jumps would fall.

german_cynthia @ 2004-08-23T01:33:00

2004-08-23T06:39:41Z

Does anyone know any Olympic legacies?
Here's one: Ingrid Klimke, a member of the German eventing team that just won a gold medal, is the daughter of Dr. Reiner Klimke, who won 6 Olympic gold & 2 bronze medals in dressage (record) for Germany spanning from 1964 to 1988.

german_cynthia @ 2004-08-23T00:12:00

2004-08-23T05:15:18Z

I feel so bad for Matt Emmons. I watched the Men's 50m Rifle 3 Pos. Final in which he was totally kicking ass until the 10th & final round. For some inexplicable reason, he shot at the wrong target & got 0 points, which dropped him from 1st to 8th. It just seems really bizarre to me...

german_cynthia @ 2004-08-22T22:42:00

2004-08-23T03:44:25Z

One thing I hate about the Olympics - the damn politics. I just finished watching the rings competition (men's gymnastics). They let a Greek win even tho he shuffled on the dismount. 3 other people (France, Bulgaria, & Russia) stuck the landing & were better, but of course, a Greek had to win, right? results

german_cynthia @ 2004-08-22T13:09:00

2004-08-22T18:11:12Z

"President Bush, who has been largely silent on the subject, is obliged by law to respond to the Ocean Commission report. He should treat these issues with a seriousness he has not often shown on environmental matters. The threat to the oceans -- and to countless species threatened by overfishing, pollution, nutrient and chemical runoff, and invasive species -- represents one of the most pressing ecological crises of our time. It cannot wait much longer for leadership."

from Saving the Oceans

Sunday, August 22, 2004; Page B06

OVER THE PAST year and a half, two blue-ribbon panels -- the Pew Oceans Commission and the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy -- have put together major reports on the state of America's coastal waters. The reports, broadly speaking, agree on a depressing reality: This country's oceans are in trouble and absent dramatic policy changes will be irreversibly damaged. Both groups make extensive recommendations for averting such a catastrophe, which would both devastate major economic interests and constitute a fundamental betrayal of society's stewardship of its natural treasures. Over the past century this country has developed a commitment to preserving forest and desert wilderness, protecting air quality and safeguarding land-based species. The message of the two commissions is that policymakers must show a similar commitment to America's territorial waters, which comprise an area larger than the land mass of the United States.

Fortunately, some policymakers are stepping up to the plate. In the wake of the reports, legislation has been introduced in Congress to begin implementing their recom- mendations. Two bills are particularly important. The first is the "Oceans 21" bill introduced by the bipartisan co-chairs of the Oceans Caucus in the House of Representatives (Republicans James C. Greenwood and Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania and Democrats Sam Farr of California and Tom Allen of Maine). The bill seeks to implement many of the recommendations of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, whose final report relating to governance of oceans issues will be delivered soon. Federal authority over oceans is a regulatory mishmash. The bill would set, for the first time, clear national policy on the subject and endow federal institutions with the power to implement it, focusing not on individual species or isolated environmental problems but on oceanic ecosystems.

The second is legislation introduced by Rep. Nick J. Rahall (D-W.Va.) and Mr. Farr to reform the regional management councils that determine how many fish can be taken from American waters and who gets what portion of the allowable catch. Some of these councils are more effective than others in protecting habitats, but the councils tend to be dominated by fishing interests. Their members are not bound by normal conflict-of-interest rules, and they do not always follow scientific analyses in setting limits. The bill would begin correcting these problems. Most important, it would tether conservation decisions more closely to the best available science regarding ecosystem health and separate these conservation decisions from those about allocating the catch.

President Bush, who has been largely silent on the subject, is obliged by law to respond to the Ocean Commission report. He should treat these issues with a seriousness he has not often shown on environmental matters. The threat to the oceans -- and to countless species threatened by overfishing, pollution, nutrient and chemical runoff, and invasive species -- represents one of the most pressing ecological crises of our time. It cannot wait much longer for leadership.

german_cynthia @ 2004-08-22T13:00:00

2004-08-22T18:07:26Z

I'd give my gold medal to the rightful winner.

U.S. Gymnast Will Keep Gold Medal Awarded in Error

By Liz Clarke
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 22, 2004; Page A01

ATHENS, Aug. 21 -- American gymnast Paul Hamm was erroneously awarded the gold medal in the men's all-around at the 2004 Olympics Wednesday night because of a scoring error that penalized bronze medal winner Yang Tae Young of South Korea, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) ruled Saturday.

Hamm will be allowed to keep the gold medal, however, because the federation refused to change the results, saying that South Korean Olympic officials filed their complaint too late. Instead, the sport's governing body suspended the three judges involved.

But that may not be enough to satisfy the disgruntled South Koreans, who are considering taking their grievance to a higher authority, the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), whose rulings on international sports are regarded as binding. Representatives of the South Korean delegation requested the paperwork needed to file an appeal Saturday, according to Matthieu Reeb, secretary general of the CAS, but no documents had been submitted by the end of the day.

The dispute took some of the sheen from Hamm's gold medal, the first all-around Olympic title won by an American man, and cast a cloud over a performance that was hailed as the greatest comeback in gymnastics history. Hamm plunged from first to 12th in the competition after botching the landing of his vault, then scored successive 9.837s (out of a perfect 10.0) on his last two events to win gold by a record razor-thin margin of 0.012 of a point.

The controversy is the latest in a growing list of squabbles over Olympic judging. The biggest scandal occurred at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, where a French figure skating judge tilted her scores in favor of a Russian duo over a more worthy Canadian pair. The judge later said she was pressured by her country's skating federation to favor the Russians. The International Olympic Committee responded by awarding a second gold medal to the Canadians.

In Hamm's case, no evidence of nefarious intent has emerged.

While two Romanian gymnasts who fell just short of winning medals complained that Hamm was scored too generously, Hamm's score wasn't the source of the South Koreans' objection. At issue was the score Yang received on his parallel bars routine, one of six events that comprise the all-around competition. Yang had performed the same routine earlier in the competition, and judges based the scoring on a 10.0 start value -- the highest possible. A start value is assigned to every gymnast's routine, reflecting its degree of difficulty. During Wednesday's all-around, judges dropped the start value to 9.9, which meant that he could have scored no higher than 9.9 even if he had performed it flawlessly.

After reviewing videotapes of the competition, FIG officials confirmed Saturday that the judges erred in assessing the difficulty of Yang's routine, depriving him of one-tenth of a point. Had Yang's routine been judged correctly, his final score (57.874 points, instead of 57.774) would have placed him ahead of Hamm for gold.

The dispute has boiled down to a question of timing, however, rather than athletic achievement.

Under FIG rules, objections over scoring must be stated during the competition, before the athletes complete the next apparatus. After that, no scores can be changed, and the only remedy is to sanction the judges. In this case, South Korea filed its protest after the competition ended.

"The judges' marks have to be accepted as a final decision and cannot be changed," the FIG stated in a news release. "In order to protect the integrity of the FIG, the judges, and to be able to maintain and ensure the highest possible judging standard at the Olympic Games, the FIG Executive Committee has decided to suspend the three technical officials concerned pending inquiry."

Hamm spent Saturday practicing for competitions on Sunday and Monday and could not be reached for comment.

Abe Grossfeld, head coach of the 1984 U.S. gold medal-winning men's gymnastics team, said the officials appear to have made an honest mistake -- the sort that is not uncommon in judging gymnastics.

Given that the South Korean complaint came after the fact, Grossman said he didn't think awarding a second gold to Yang would be appropriate. "They could if they wanted to, but it's not according to the rules," Grossfeld said. "If they award a second gold, it would sort of prove the Koreans [appealed] the right way. They didn't follow the rules. That rule has been in place for quite a while."

FIG officials did not identify the suspended judges. The Associated Press identified them as American George Beckstead, who was in charge of the panel that judged the parallel bars; Benjamin Bango of Spain; and Oscar Buitrago Reyes of Colombia.

U.S. gymnastics officials declined comment, referring all questions to FIG spokesman Philippe Silacci, who did not return a telephone message. South Korean officials also did not respond to telephone or e-mail messages.

IOC officials said they are relying on FIG to resolve the dispute and will not intervene unless approached by the sport's international governing body.

Hamm has a chance to win four more medals in addition to his team silver and individual gold. On Sunday he competes in the floor exercise and pommel horse finals. On Monday, he'll compete for medals on the parallel bars and horizontal bars.

german_cynthia @ 2004-08-22T12:51:00

2004-08-22T17:51:33Z

Frederick Company Fires Employee Who Taunted Bush