w.bloggar is software for Windows (info listed for other MacOS and Linux options), free, provides editor and post ability to blogs. Drupal has a page on how to post and edit content with w.bloggar.

I find this puzzling. Wouldn't people want to be inoculated if there was a pandemic?

Senator Patty Murray is supporting this bill. Could US Citizens be forced into inoculations if there is a pandemic? If you find this worrisome, please call your public officials and particularly, the list below.

Excerpt: Senator Richard Burr, of North Carolina has introduced a bill which, if passed, means the end of health freedom, possibly the end of your health and most certainly the end of your right to a trial by a jury of your peers in the all-too-likely event that you or your child have been harmed by a vaccine. The "Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005" also takes away your right to know what you have been injected with (no disclosure, no Freedom of Information Act suits, none!) and your right to be compensated if that vaccination harms you or a loved one.

They were watching J.P. Patches.

Any Baby Boomer who grew up in Puget Sound knows about J.P. Patches. Oh, there were other shows for kids: Brakeman Bill (with Crazy Donkey), Capt. Puget, Wunda Wunda, Stan Boreson. But J.P. was the king. His show was live, improvisational, and fun. I was a member of his earliest audience out of KIRO, and grew up with him. When I had to write a paper about children's television, it seemed only natural to write about J.P.

To my amazement, when I left a message at the TV station about my interest, J.P. called me back and agreed to talk with me. I had seen him only twice before in person. I saw him at the Century 21 Exposition (Seattle World's Fair) in 1961, and he also came to the grand opening of the shopping complex where Rainy Day Records now sits, which took place about the same era.

When I showed up at the station early one morning, I was ushered into a little sound booth. Through the glass I saw the set of J.P.'s home in the City Dump. In the booth there was a TV and it was playing what was being broadcast at the moment, a really low-budget choppy animated bit about "Little Johnny Everything," which had an annoying jingle throughout it. The door opened, and it was J.P. "Are you Willis?" he asked. Yup. "Keep watching," he pointed at the screen, "Maybe you'll learn something new." He followed this comment with a jaded laugh and walked to the set to begin performing.

There were two things that really stick in my mind about his performance that morning, over 30 years ago.

If you are concerned about the amount of petroleum that we use from foreign sources, and the role it plays in geo-political events, here is a local alternative:

Home heating oil made in part from soybeans grown and refined in Iowa is just the latest new product offered by the Acme Service Group, better known since 1925 as Acme Fuel.

Biodiesel is an alternative fuel growing in popularity these days. It's a renewable resource. It doesn't pollute the air the way petroleum-based diesel emissions do. And the more we use, the less dependent we are on foreign oil."

I've been driving a hybrid for the last three years -- a great car, by the way -- but I've just bought a diesel so that I can run completly "dinofuel-free".

This is an open thread to handle the copious number of comments from the previous discussion. Remember -- this is a non-contact sport. Play the ball, not the man (or woman).

The philosophy of education and the types of courses offered at TESC are generally:
Too liberal 64.1%
Acceptable 34.7%
Too conservative 1.1%

TESC should:
Be continued along present lines 31.1%
Be changed to a more conventional four year college 53.5%
Be closed and tax dollars used elsewhere 9.4%

Dr. McCann, President of TESC:
Is doing an excellent job 35.8%
Is doing a mediocre job 28.2%
Should be replaced 35.8%

The existence of TESC has contributed to the drug abuse and crime problem in this area:
To a very great extent 35.4%
No more than a conventional college 55.2%
Very little 9.3%

Seminars and open meetings at TESC such as have been presented concerning male homosexuality, lesbianism, marijuana usage, World Liberation, and other such thought provoking subjects should be:
Encouraged 32.7%
Discouraged 25.0%
Eliminated 41.6%

The hiring of instructors such as anti-war activist Stephanie Coontz to teach at TESC:
Should be encouraged 5.8%
Is acceptable, if balanced by more conservative and conventional instructors 38.2%
Is totally unacceptable 41.6%

This survey generated quite a bit of publicity at the time, and Rep. Kuehnle had some unsolicited responses. Some quotes from those:

""[TESC is] a permanent rock festival here in this town for we taxpayers to support the creeps from out of state who just come here to hide from life. This school is encouraging these young people to use drugs, stay dirty, learn more and meet more homos."

"Did you know that the paved area in front of the libary is known as 'RED SQUARE'?"

I drifted their direction and eventually struck up a conversation. We created our own little bubble of focus. They told me they supported the president and that they were headed back soon to war. I listened to them, heard and witnessed their grief. We agreed to disagree on many matters. We did agree that war is hell and that their friends now dead were missed and mourned.

That conversation is still vivid in my memory, not the details, more how it felt to listen so intensely to two men in pain.

I hope they survived.