Dump Duhbya

Give a Disaster-ready Gift This Year

FEMA: Giving Peace Of Mind

“The holidays are a great time to give important, inexpensive gifts that say: ‘I care!’ and reduce risk exposure for friends and loved ones,” said Pennington. “Disaster-ready gifts can save lives and are a wonderful way of making 2005 a more disaster-resistant year for everyone.”

Emergency and preparedness items that might make great gifts this Holiday Season include:

# Pet Disaster Kits (food, water, leashes, dishes and carrying case or crate).
# A camp stove with extra fuel.
# an Uncle Samta

I’m reminded of disaster-preparedness advocated in the 60’s: in case of nuclear attack, put your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye. mjh

Mine

Happy Birthday, Dad

It happens every year ? I can’t quite remember which day is my Dad’s birthday. Lou Hinton was born 12/16/1917 on a farm in central Tennessee, but I always miss-remember it as 12/17, another dyslexic moment. So, again, I’m a day late.

Not that he’ll notice. My Dad died 33 years ago, nearly 2/3rds of my lifetime ago. This is the time each year I think of him. And whenever I build something out of wood, like our arbor. An engineer by profession, he was a good carpenter and planner. That people could be oblivious to some things that seemed so obvious to him left him frustrated to the point of anger. He was successful in that 1950’s way and as flummoxed as anyone else by the Revolutions of the 1960’s.

He was survived by a dozen years by my Mom, who flourished in that way widows often do, but who never stopped missing him.

Perhaps 10 years ago, after Mom had died, I sat at the computer writing a letter to my Dad, as if he had survived her death. I had this clear vision of him living in the West, driving a pickup truck with a couple of big dogs. I cried more than when he died.

Happy Birthday, Dad.

Dump Duhbya

The Model for Republicans

Illegal Abortions Rampant in Latin America By Jen Ross

Five thousand women die from clandestine abortions every year in Latin America. It has one of the highest abortion rates in the world, despite its near-universal illegality. …

Abortion is prohibited across most of Latin America. Cuba and Puerto Rico are the exceptions. While some countries allow abortion in cases of rape or danger to the mother’s life, there are no exceptions in Chile, Colombia and El Salvador. These countries prosecute hundreds of women for having abortions. …

“The political elite, or the people who have money, happen to have access to abortions under optimal conditions, a doctor, a clinic, anesthesia . . . or they can even go to Miami to a clinic, so it’s not an issue for them. Poor women risk their lives.”

Theirs

Happy Birthday, cabq.gov

Happy 10th Birthday cabq.gov – December 2004 – City of Albuquerque

www.cabq.gov Celebrates 10 Years Online
Born: December 16, 1994, 1:55 pm
Size: 19 bytes (but by the end of the day it had grown to 200 bytes)

On December 16th 1994 a little website was born. Its first words were, “Can you see me?”

On this day, the City of Albuquerque was one of the first governments in the state of New Mexico to “give birth” to a website. In fact, based upon our research, Albuquerque’s website appears to be the 3rd oldest municipal website in the country, just behind the City of Palo Alto, CA.

In 1994 a lot of people still hadn’t heard of the world wide web and few websites existed. Today, cabq.gov receives nearly 4 million visits a year….

[Thanks, Pika!]

Dump Duhbya

God’s Judges

Judge’s religious robe on trial By Kim Henderson

Circuit Court Judge M. Ashley McKathan’s move to adorn a robe embroidered with the Ten Commandments has sparked a nationally frenzy. …

Judge McKathan first began wearing the robe, which he had embroidered by a local woman, this Monday.

He wears it on the bench during hearings and other cases. …

“The message I hope it sends is that you cannot divorce the law away from the truth and get justice,” remarked Judge McKathan. “I’m not worthy to do what has to be done, to carry that message to others, but I don’t think anybody is. It has to be done, though.

“I plan to continue to wear the robe.”

Theirs

Dick

THURSDAY, 16 DECEMBER, 2004

Philip K. Dick said, “Insanity is sometimes an appropriate response to reality.” … He thought he saw a face in the sky. He wrote, “It was a vast visage of evil with empty slots for eyes, metal and cruel, and worst of all, it was God.” … He was fascinated that he could no longer tell what was real and what wasn’t.

"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." — Sam Adams