Whatever the heck cockles are.

Despair, Inc is selling it’s BitterSweets for VD(Valentine’s Day) again. Features sayings such as “Peaked at 17” and “UC my blog?”

Were I in the market for crappy trinkets, Despair.com would get my ducats.

Way back when, I ranted in favor of Kucinich’s Department of Peace, I endorsed the idea of doing away with the UN in favor of a body comprised of those that meet standards of human rights, democracy being a firm evidence of a commitment to Human Rights (Property rights being as firm of evidence, but this isn’t meant to be a rant). Today’s WSJ features a bit by MAX M. KAMPELMAN taking much the same stance:

Is it any wonder that many Americans hesitate to place our security concerns in the hands of the U.N.? Daniel Patrick Moynihan, as he was leaving his role as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. in 1976, called it a “theater of the absurd.” … At a minimum, it is essential that the U.S. take the lead in establishing and strengthening a Caucus of Democratic States committed to advancing the U.N.‘s assigned role for world peace, human dignity and democracy. The recently established Community of Democracies (CD) has called for this move, a recommendation jointly supported in a recent report by the Council on Foreign Relations and Freedom House.

The article goes on to highlight the fact that the Community of Democracies was spearheaded by Sec. of State Maddie Albright, and legslation was introduced in the Senate by Democrat Senator Joe Biden requiring that such action be taken.

Johnny (and the rest of you pot-smoking hippies): This is an issue that would have legs with Joe Six-Pack that highlights the Administration’s foreign policy shortcomings while building on some of the Bush Administrations successes (The coalition of the willing featured some vibrant, growing, recently free democracies, such as Poland, who should be highlighted as success stories), and a demonstrable track record of Democrat leadership. An issue like this, coupled with a focus on the out-of-control growth of government and the deficit, and the corporate handouts (careful on this one, be sure to couch it in terms that free-market types can deal with, such as “propping up failing businesses” instead of “handouts to rich cronies”) contains not a whole lot to upset the democrat base, and lots and lots for people who approved of the liberation of Iraq and Afghanistan, war on terror, and who like general libertarian types of things to move to the Jackass side of the aisle.

Much as conservative southern Democrats feel sold out by the rest of the party, libertarian Republicans feel sold out by GWB. They’d swing in a heartbeat if given something to vote for besides “Bush Lied” and “Tax cuts for the wealthy”.

Guess this turned into a rant. Sorry.

Over the holidays I traveled from Austin to Sherveport and back by car. That’s a 5 hour drive each way if you only stop to pee once. I saw God’s hand at iTunes in the form of Al Franken’s audio-book for Lies and Lying Liars Who Tell Them which clocks in around 10 hours. (Is that sacreligious? Probably doesn’t matter because God’s too busy still trying to locate “compassionate” conservatives.) It’s an excellent book and I highly reccommend it to anyone open minded enough to take Al Franken ripping into Coulter, Hannity, Limbaugh and O’Reilly in his friendly harmless manner. (Oh and he takes a good chunk out of the Bush administration while he’s at it.)

This series of web pages chronicles an artist using his dose-giver as a subject throughout his ‘trip’.

Here’s a little quiz that supposedly tests what World Leader you closely match. They’ve added a nice touch that lets you pick how many questions you want to answer — the more question, the more accurate…or so they say.