The Written Peace:
Open Forum of March 16, 2007
Your host here at The Dark Wraith Forums has tried his best to publish a nice open thread while preparing this site for transition to a new publishing platform. Google has been working mightily to force users of its publishing platform to switch to its so-called "new" Blogger, something I will not do. Google has gone so far as to prevent me from publishing any further articles without signing its new "Terms of Agreement" and allowing their new Blogger to wreak havoc on the code I have been developing over the past two years and several months.
Yesterday, I circumvented the block Google had put into place and published a brief article here. It got deleted rather quickly.
This one won't be.
I have been awaiting the arrival of a more-or-less new computer to replace the poor beast that has labored terribly and with increasing difficulty under the strain I put on it. Fortunately, the new computer arrived yesterday, and I am bringing it up to full power tonight. It is quite a thing to behold, and now I can do things I have been unable to do for quite some time. I can also do a few things I was never able to do before.
As soon as possible, The Dark Wraith Forums will leave the less than competent hands of the folks at Google and go to the NucleusCMS platform, which is the one I use for Big Brass Blog. As I've noted before, a principal concern I have had in switching to Nucleus for this site is that commenters on Nucleus blogs have to use the old Bulletin Board Code (BBC) instead of HTML tags for mark-up. I had been hoping for the development of a module that would allow HTML tags in comments, but that hasn't happened yet.
A significant coding challenge with which I am still struggling is how to make the comments toggle from the main article in Nucleus like I've done here. One of the few good things about the old Blogger publishing platform was that it was so light-weight that I could deploy just about any coding trick I wanted in the so-called "template" (more accurately called the "index file"), and the publishing platform would have no issue with it. That's most decidedly not true of the new Blogger, as I have found out through helping others trying to make the transition. Several members of my blogScream News Wire syndicate have had fits trying to put something as straight-forward as one of the news screens into a new Blogger template. blogScream uses a very standard, harmless version of an object called an IFRAME, something that's been around for a long time; but the new Blogger is having emotional difficulties with it that are creating quite a challenge in maintaining syndicate membership levels.
And speaking of the blogScream News Wire service, it is two years old today, which means it stands as one of the longest running, continuously published news services featuring only blog headlines. Several other services like it have come and gone, but blogScream survives and will continue. Readers who see a blogScream screen on one of more than two dozen blogs across the Blogosphere are seeing headlines from some of the best progressive online writers. Click on a blogScream headline and discover a great blog.
Readers might, by the way, surmise from my two topics above that I am not currently in negotiations to sell blogScream to Google, even though it sometimes seems that every other online publisher of something even halfway interesting is. In the extraordinarily unlikely event that the bandwidth sucking, Chinese censorship enabling, technologically incompetent, wannabe monopolists at Google were to approach me on such a matter, I would be torn between the choices of telling them to bite me or to kiss my backside. Making not one dime of profit is far preferable to garnering a fortune from oafs.
Enough about that.
Over at Big Brass Blog, I published an editorial on what's happening with the stock markets. (That article was supposed to be part of the "Open Forum of March 13, 2007," which never got published here because Google was blocking me from access to the publishing platform).
My assessment of what's going on was typically dour, but let me assure readers here of this: it could get a whole lot worse than even I am describing. In my best judgment, the economic circumstances of many, many people will take a turn for the worse. Most of those people for at least a while will not get their minds around how bad it's getting for them personally. It will take time to sink in. People have been getting used to a modest version of this downward spiral for a few years now; but for most, it's been happening to someone else, and to the extent that it's been happening to them, they have not been making the connection between the world of large-scale financial, economic, and political policies and the consequentially adverse impact of those policies on their own lives.
The understanding of the deep connections will come, but it will come slowly, and it will never be a full understanding for most people. Even though I would like it otherwise, it isn't really all that important that most people will persistently lack a comprehensive grasp of the scope of the incompetence and mendacity that are the very cause of the bad times ahead.
As long as the average American finally figures out who is to blame, all is good. If that average American finally figures out who is to hang, all is even better than good.
Say what you have to say, here. This is an open thread. This post will not get deleted, and the comment facility is working (which it wasn't for my first attempt at this).
Once I've opened the espresso bar and put some snacks out for everyone, maybe we'll have a contest featuring people who try to impersonate a neo-con on the run from a noose. Or maybe we'll do one of those contests where we see who can hold out the longest from laughing when we say things like "The GOP is the party of fiscal restraint."
I did hint over on an open thread at Big Brass Blog that I might get some nude breakdancing going now that I've waxed the dance floor. I'll try to talk Peter of Lone Tree into doing a duo with me on that. If things turn rowdy, we might be able to get some kind of choreographed number going with Minstrel Boy, blackdog, Mr. Goat, and Father Tyme joining me for an interpretive dance to the music from some good, post-Apocalypse movie like Kevin Costner's, The Postman, all of this to the purpose, quite obviously, of ensuring that we still have a good time even as we descend into Hell.
Yes, indeed.
The Dark Wraith does his best to keep people from becoming too pessimistic about the misery, poverty, strife, and absence of acceptable feng shui that may be visited upon us as a nation.
Published 3/16/2007 01:27:00 AM
<< 31 Comments Total
From this morning's CNN.com top stories, we have the article, "Plame to testify on Capitol Hill," in which we find this absolute jewel as the opening sentence:
"Democratic lawmakers are eager to hear from outed CIA operative Valerie Plame as they try to make political fodder out of the 2003 leak scandal."
Dear God, good readers, hasn't CNN heard by now that it's okay to stop this?
Well, at the very least, I've learned from past experiences with CNN.com that I have to do a screen capture of an article of theirs when they're being naughty because of the possibility that the article will vanish once they've done their damage.
The Dark Wraith is grateful to CNN.com for legitimizing the art of propaganda.
Good morning Mr. Wraith,
Given what is going on with flogger I'm assuming you're more than aware of this trend: mogger balware. If nothing else it may give some of your readers a better understanding of why it is time to leave hogger behind.
Well hey, at least it's Friday right?
"...people who try to impersonate a neo-con on the run from a noose..."
These neo-cons of which you speak; are they the ones walking around and saying,
"No noose is good noose"?
(Gotta quit askin' questions like this; almost hurt myself fallin' outta my chair.)
The Dark Wraith remains unamused.
Thanks DW, for another amazing rant (as usual) which hit on so many great points. In fact, you hit on so many great points that while reading you, I often think to myself: "hell yeah, that's right, Amen brother!, how bout that, F yeah, me too, uh huh, woah-didn't know that..", etcetera, etcetera. Damn DW, I want to comment on so many things that what happens is you overwhelm me and I often wind up commenting on little to nothing. (How, I wish I could tell it like that.)
Anyhoo, thanks for not inviting me into the nude breakdancing group. I mean it. LOL Though I might watch if you get some hot progressive chics like somewaterytart and Litbrit; and perhaps even mediagirl, Pissed off Patricia or BlondeSense - though I don't know what they look like.
And (everyone) please download Volume 2 of my video series which is now available.
RCG Volume 2. Title: Banned and Censored Video Clips and more. Runtime: 00:53min. 32 sec.
Available here: http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/1056181/1840667/
Here is a tinyurl, just in case the previous doesn't show correctly. http://tinyurl.com/3azzgn
As long as the average American finally figures out who is to blame, all is good. If that average American finally figures out who is to hang, all is even better than good.
~The Dark Wraith
I can't say I'm convinced that it will pan out that way, seeing how most average Americans supported the lynching and rape of Iraq. The on-going rape must still enjoy significant support among same said average Americans, else we would be pulling troops out of Iraq rather than planning to send more in.
If average Americans were to hang those truly responsible, more than a few average Americans would themselves be hung. For this reason, I expect them to falsely assign blame elsewhere rather than place responsibility where it properly belongs.
Hello again - one and all. Since this is an open thread, I'd like to quote something that I just read on Mike Ruppert's site, fromthewilderness.com. It's shocking and it made me think of the "locusts" post and so... it's below.
"I want to repeat something I have been saying in private emails over the last month. Personally, I am through forever with investigative journalism and public lecturing. I am leaving public life. It is my hope that by continuing to repeat this sincere position that many of the inexplicable difficulties which have dominated my life over the past months will ease." Mike Ruppert.
Mike is currently hospitalized in Toronto and "his adrenal system is severely damaged and there may be toxicity of the liver". Hmmm...Sounds to me like Mike is asking those who may have poisoned him to lay off and he will go away.
anyhoo, I'm nodding off. Here's a link if you want to read the rest of the story. http://tinyurl.com/2og4fr
G'night DW and everyone...
Good morning Dark Wraith,
Damn I've missed you. Work has been consuming me for the past two week, so DWF was my first stop this morning! (Well, after checking out whatever damage I inflicted on the Virtual Bar at Shakes' last night.)
Good morning, konagod.
You had me a little worried there with that post you published a few days back. It looked like a classic case of "life whip-saw": first, firm plans to make a major life change; then an unexpected twist that makes the firm plans go away. The good news is that it sounds like you've secured a great job, and as a bonus, txrad gets hired at the same place.
And now you're still publishing posts regularly, so at least one part of the universe is in good order.
Now, if only we could get the remainder of the universe to see it our way...
The Dark Wraith is working on the problem.
Good morning, rcg.
In the days when I was getting beaten into the ground in an earlier cyberspace persona, I was thoroughly convinced that I would never again even so much as go near any kind of interactive environment on the Internet.
One of the worst parts of the experience was that I kept trying to do "reality checks": you know, where you tell yourself that, rationally speaking, no one's really out to get you, and it's all in your mind, and you don't want to be some obsessed 'conspiracy theory' kook, and everything's really okay. Those reality checks finally stopped working, and my loss of confidence in a broadly "rational," "objective" kind of look at how things can be took a severe diminishment. I even had to dredge up several events from when I was quite young and let go of my own dismissal of what I had seen and what I had known. The journey got bad because I had to look at both the here and now as it was really unfolding at the same time I had to look at a few things from the past that had tried to define my way of thinking but that I had set aside.
The year-and-a-half to two years I spent writing about the ancient versions of the English language was wonderful therapy. I was able to use a relatively objective base of knowledge to write extensively and even creatively, and the participants in the forum were not, for at least a very long time, particularly nasty in the sense that no one would actually hunt down and harm someone with whom there was disagreement. That finally began to change somewhat, and the ugliness--particularly that of the moderator of the forum as she dealt with some people--ultimately prompted me to leave.
Something else was a factor in my departure, too. A writer doing research for a historical fiction novel came to the message board and asked me if I had any idea what a certain Old Norse word--a proper noun--meant. The possible translation was so odd that I, myself, began to look into the story about which the lady was planning to write. Although only shards of historical documentation exist--and all of those are official writings of Church officials after the time--what emerged was a story that was truly frightful in an eerily subtle kind of way. There I was again: getting myself all wound up into "official" versus "unofficial" and "rational" versus "gut-level" understandings and perceptions of events.
So here I am, and here we are: we see what this Administration has done to the country, we know what are the likely consequences of their venality and incompetence, we know what the legions of the secular and religious Right want to do to our world, and we know very well that we're pretty much, each in his or her own way, screaming our bloody heads off in vain because the overwhelming majority of Americans would prefer to keep their heads in the sand and stick them out only when they, in their own personal lives, feel a little kick in the butt from the jackboot that's been kicking everybody's butt.
In other words, here we are; and here I am, back in a place with which I am all too familiar.
But at least we have our own blogs, rcg. That's a good thing.
Until they take those away from us.
That would be a bad thing.
The Dark Wraith has prattled long enough for now.
DW,
"The GOP is the party of fiscal distain."
I won't yet abandon hope.
Who knows? "Tripping the light fantastic" did wonders for Belushi and Aykroyd.
All hail Terpsichore!
Anybody have a good cheap studio out there?
BTW, I've been to a number of levels of Hell and usually did my drinking and had good times AFTER coming back. But it sounds like an offer I couldn't refuse.
A one and a two...
Off to the hospital again, be back later this PM. Things seem to be going OK.
A minor note is in order this evening.
I have been working on the new version of The Dark Wraith Forums. I think I can give a fair estimate that sometime on Wednesday evening, if you come to this blog, you'll see it on its new platform. It will look a little different, but not all that much.
I am now in the part of the project where I am making it look the same as what you see here except for the parts I intentionally mean to look different (or simply cannot make the same).
If you happen to visit at the wrong time on Wednesday, you might see some really odd things going on, but those will be temporary. For example, I'll have to deploy the alternate color themes (there will be two alternatives, I hope) in the main page here to perfect them, so you might for a while see a color scheme that looks decidedly non-black.
A few minor alteration efforts will survive the official change-over. I can do those (or more accurately, try to do those) at leisure over the next week or two. The main goal is to get the Website completely functional in the new platform so I can completely, fully, and permanently cut off Blogger's access to my domain. That will, unfortunately, mean that comments will be closed in articles that were published under the Blogger platform. The articles, themselves, will survive, as will the comments posted prior to the switch-over; but because comments publish to those articles using Blogger's commenting system, there will no longer be any facility for adding new comments once the Blogger connection is finally (and with prejudice aforethought) terminated.
So, anyway, if this site looks strange on Wednesday, the problem is only temporary. Just how temporary any strangeness will be depends entirely upon how quickly I can repair mistakes I find once I go live on the new platform.
The Dark Wraith bawls, "Hang on, Nellie, we're goin' down the mountain road, an' th' brakes ain't workin'!"
Good Afternoon Dark Wraith,
The Dark Wraith bawls, "Hang on, Nellie, we're goin' down the mountain road, an' th' brakes ain't workin'!"
I've been feeling like that since the republic party stole the 2000 election!
Good luck, best wishes and you know I sympathize.
Happy coding!
I finally switched, but then I do not have the awesome computer abilities you obviously have.
But I don't like the way they forced the issue.
Damn it. I see I need to make a beer run for the Wraith; it gets awful quiet around here when there's no suds for Peter and Blackdog.
Best of luck with the transition Dark Wraith. I feel your pain.
Well, good friends, I am sitting here with a mystery on my hands. Building a template that looks nearly identical to the one you're seeing right now was one thing, and making it a three-column affair was quite trying, which I always expect.
But now, I've got the stupid thing almost perfect except for one thing: it looks right on my computer and on a whole bunch of others I've used to view it, but when I look at it from several of the computers at school—nice, fast Dells with 17" flat-screen monitors at the very standard 1024x768 resolution—the confounded center column is pushed down to the bottom, but I'm not seeing this on ANY OTHER COMPUTERS ANYWHERE, EVEN ON THE ONES ELSEWHERE CONFIGURED IDENTICALLY!!!
It's supposed to be working looking nice at any resolution of 1024x768 or higher, and it does, except for when I look at it on those several Dell machines.
DumbDells.
I cannot for the life of me figure out what in the Dell is going on.
I'm thinking to myself, "Well, Hell's Dells, maybe I need to start again from scratch and build the three-column thing again from scratch using an alternate architecture." Then again, I keep thinking to myself, "I know I've done the mathematics correctly, and I need to stand firm with what I know is right, come Dell or high water."
But I'll tell you all one thing right now: there's got to be a special place in Dell for computer designers that send incompetent hacks like me into fits of bad pun-making.
The Dark Wraith is on the verge of Dell-irium.
Kinda had me worried there with your ranting and raving about Dell, for I thought that perhaps they might seek some sort of vengeance. But then I sorta remembered an old saying. Something about,
"Dell hath no fury..."
Good Morning Dark Wraith,
If it was a laptop and you sent it back for service, it could go to Dell in a handbasket.
The Dark Wraith fears that he has started one Delluva punfest.
"Do not ask for whom the Dell foils,
it foils for thee."
*Groans at the puns and clicks quickly away.
Alright, so maybe there were some chuckles on reading so many, but I'm not going to admit it.
Wow, that was one Dell-of-a post!
Alright, so maybe there were some chuckles on reading so many, but I'm not going to admit it.
Not even if Dell freezes over?
Here's one network the Dark Wraith won't use come dell or high water:
8 Signs Giigle is Planning to Build a National Wireless Network
grr.
"Dark Wraith said...
grr."
Ye Shall Reap As Ye Have Sown.
And, from :
(bold emph.-PoLT
State officials in New York have detected a substance used both as a rat poison and anti-cancer drug, Aminopterin, in samples of suspect pet food.
No explanation was given as to how the poison entered the food or when in the process the dog and cat foods became contaminated. Neither State nor Federal law enforcement agencies have indicated any criminal investigations are planned.
According to Wikipedia, Aminopterin (4-aminopteroic acid) is a 4-amino analog of folic acid. It is a substance with properties that suppress the immune system (lower anti infection system strength in the body) and is commonly used in chemotherapy.
From Merriam-Webster Online:
One entry found for pterin.
Main Entry: pter·in
Pronunciation: 'ter-&n
Function: noun
Etymology: International Scientific Vocabulary pter- (from Greek pteron wing) + 1-in; from its being a factor in the pigments of butterfly wings
: any of various compounds that contain the bicyclic ring system characteristic of pteridine
I have Ph.D in Conspiracy Theory but I'm kinda scant when it comes to biology. Biology majors are welcome to reassure me that the Custodians weren't just testing the "food" on animals before they tried it out on humans.
PoLT,
Achtung! Herr Doktor! I think the Chinese are exporting their future.
If they slowly poison all of us, not necessarily with just "poison", starting with the animals, there's gonna be some kinda fear and panic in the streets; just what W wants while he and his friends sip guava juice in Paraguay.
Next it'll be something from Wally-World imported from the land of the panda.
I'm looking at a major rash-causing irritant in knock-off toilet paper!
I think they'll do it just to show us they can be a real pain in the ass.
Back to leaves and stones and twigs!