photo credit: AP Photo/Don Ryan

“…is not like the other things.”

photo credit: REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

“…plays a key role in the Clinton campaign”

photo credit: Tony Gutierrez - AP

jeebus. from the leader of the free world, to this.

photo credit: Gerald Herbert - AP

“…one intrepid supporter remembered to hold up her sign so that the candidate could recall his name.”

i have another busy weekend ahead of me, and next Monday is going to be a bit stanky with the worky-poop as well, so today becomes the best day to add some folks to the ever-growing roll of blogs over there on the right. once again, only the good stuff. a mixture of some new visitors and people who may or may not know i exist. worthy reads, all.

1. …And That’s How You Live With A Curse ~ reminds me a bit of romius t, but appears to be slightly more sane. (heathens)
2. Black Sun Journal ~ aa great design and excellently written opinions. (heathens)
3. By The Book Comics ~ displaying why fundamentalists are so very wrong in a simple format that even they can understand. (heathens)
4. Daily Atheist ~ a considerable resource for critical thinkers. (heathens)
5. The View from Here ~ a free-thinker from North of Forty and an excellent semi-daily read. (provocateurs)
6. drl2Blog ~ humor and insight with an occasional biting edge. well, i said occasional, but sarcasm liberally abounds…. (provocateurs)
7. Friendly Atheist ~ observations on life in general from folks who prove the theory that one doesn’t have to subscribe to religious dogma in order to be “good”. (heathens)
8. On Fire for Reason ~ personal insights from a reasonable thinker. (heathens)

i just pulled the OPML version of my google reader of all my blogrollups into perpetual dawnne, and of course, that worked like crap. didn’t realize OPML didn’t recognize categories of links and link descriptions, something i’m rather fastidious about. go figure. luckily, that presents me the opportunity to revisit everyone’s sites so as to reconstruct those descriptions, which is probably a good think because i don’t make it out and about as much as i’d like to….even in blogging terms. anyway, right now, unless you were already in the perpetual dawnne blogroll, you’re all just a mish-mash under the category of BlogHeads (which incidentally is the first category of links over there). i’ll get that sorted out in conjunction with some other reorganization efforts over there within the next couple of weeks or so. at least you’re all blogrolled from both sites in the meantime.

THERE WAS SOMEONE I ACCIDENTALLY FORGOT! a found a link from Swerve Left in my referrals on perpetual dawnne, went and visited there this morning, and spent about an hour reading. i found the site to be most excellent, so i added it to my Google Reader. however, i forgot to include Swerve Left both here and on perpetual dawnne. luckily, the cursorily satisfactory OPML import added Swerve Left for me over there, but when i originally posted this, i was stupid and left it out of here. which is ironic, because it was visiting Swerve Left this morning that reminded me i needed to do this blogroll addage thingy today because of my schedule this weekend. So, in case you had somehow missed it yet, HERE’S A LINK TO THE MOST-EXCELLENT SWERVE LEFT, which is included in provocateurs.

photo credit: AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

“…rhetorical constipation.”

Hi, Senator McCain (if that’s your REAL job).

Yesterday, a fellow blogger recommended that I take this graduate student’s survey, so I did. I’m nearly apologetic to report to you, sir, that my responses in regards to you and your campaign were not complimentary. In the course of taking that survey, I was chagrined to realize that, frankly, you scare me.

Now, as a veteran of two armed conflicts and a practitioner of TaeKwonDo, I really don’t like admitting that something scares me. But as a registered Independent with significantly liberal tendencies, I find myself something more than annoyed, disappointed, or even made nervous by you. You scare me. When I imagine a world in which you are our President, I shudder, finding myself worrying about my children’s futures in ways that are probably quite similar to what parents in third-world countries have to consider. And that offends me. I didn’t serve my country to protect its freedom to jeopardize the well-being of its people; I served my country to protect the efficacy of our Constitution and our Bill of Rights.

And you scare me, sir, because of your professed support of the current Administration, which clearly places those very concepts at the gravest risk they have ever faced. You frighten me, not only for that, but for your expressed intent to continue those misplaced, misguided, and malignant policies for as long as, if not more than, a hundred years.

My question to you is simple, sir, because I understand that the need for simplicity is paramount to your understanding of our world. But the question has a few nuances, and thus bears repeating a few times, so please bear with me. Also, please understand that I grasp your position on the perceived value of military occupational forces as referred to in the link above. So, this question is not about the motivations of your military doctrine. Instead, this question is about the motivation of your personal impetus.

“Why do you, John McCain, personally want a hundred or more years of the tragedy we euphemistically refer to as ‘The War on Terror’?”

on to the nuances of the question