Month: June 2005

Geldof condemns sale of Live 8 tickets on eBay

LONDON (Reuters) – Live 8 organizer Bob Geldof has condemned as “sick profiteering” the sale of free charity concert tickets on auction Web site eBay.

This sale currently sits at GBP $99,100 (US $179,093.52). I’d say Geldof supporters are having fun. And this one is GBP $210,000 (US $361,620.72). But another is reasonably at GBP $82 (US $142.19).

Geldof branded the site an "electronic pimp" and called for a worldwide boycott. eBay said in a statement they were selling the tickets because "we live in a free market where people can make up their own minds," but said they would donate at least the equivalent of the fees they raised through the sale of Live 8 tickets. Geldof rejected this offer, saying instead he was appealing to their "sense of decency to stop this disgusting greed."

The concert is not to raise money for Africa but to "raise the profile of African poverty and influence leaders of the G8 group of industrialized nations."

The Offshoring Digest found my April 25, 2004 post to be noteworthy.

Student: I understand vasectomies are painful.
Master: I understand college tuitions are painful.

Student: Do you have any advice regarding babies?
Master: Day surgery.

Since no one jumped on my wife I must assume two things: 1) No one has Floyd tickets they are willing to give up and 2) the readers here are smart enough to recognize the previous post was made with certain jocularity. Of course, my wife will probably say something like "because I’m old and fat" even though she is neither.

It’s now been discussed. We will trade sex for Pink Floyd tickets. On a side note, yes, sex is a spectator sport! I find it peculiar that during the discussion "tickets" was singular and my presence wasn’t required at either event.

Sharon Cobb calls for Bredesen to step down.

I started researching the TennCare issue for a documentary I wanted to shoot at the start of 05. However, I met with some resistance from some of the TennCare advocates. Two of them were afraid of upsetting the governor. They were afraid “I was too much like Michael Moore.” While I considered the Moore comparison a compliment, I was deeply troubled that a few of these advocates were afraid to upset the governor. A couple of them clearly had a conflict of interest.

Evidence:

• This document contains proof that the Governor wanted to prevent alternative proposals, and reenroll–"front loading" in 06
• Build back enrollment in Year 2
• "Front-Load bad news allow add backs later"
• From: Goetz to Hickey… "To Hell with the Tennessee Justice Center" email

Update:

• More Actual Proof That Bredesen Did Not Negotiate In Good Faith
• One More Document That Proves Bredesen Did Not Negotiate In Good Faith

Student: I’m a new dad!
Master: After the first child, "new" is an unnecessary qualifier.

Ever had a real honest to goodness panic attack? They come in different flavors.

Yesterday I had a really good one. 20 different distinct thoughts floating through my head. It was like being in the center of a tornado and seeing chaos swirling around you. Thousands of thoughts you can’t focus on but roughly 20 you can track and occasionally you could focus on one of the 20 but could not reach it and could only hold the focus briefly before it zipped off spinning with the rest of the clutter.

The madness drives you to the bed where you pull the covers over your head and try to focus on a single thought. Calm is found in sleep but wakefulness unleashes the dragons. You come to with a start realizing that you’ve wasted potential productive time in hiding. The adreline rushes and the tornado swirls. A cyclic nightmare.

I can’t believe we would take a person to impeachment over a blow job but Hitleresq type behavior well documented just doesn’t seem to fire people up.

The government(through a bill introduced in July 2004 by Georgia Representative Max Burns) is now trying to get Interstate 3 in place. This would destroy much beautiful natural area in the Southeast. The Smoky Mountians are dying due to auto polution and Interstate 3 would potentially run through Deal’s Gap (yes, killing the favorite spot of motorcyclists). The Interest proposal is named for war (3rd Infantry Division Highway) and based on war (to better connect our military bases – “(1) linking defensive installations across the South, including Fort Gordon, Eisenhower Army Regional Medical Center, the Augusta Veterans Administration Hospitals, Fort Stewart, Hunter Army Airfield, and the Port of Savannah, “which is in the strategic defense interest of the Nation.” “).

I find it funny that we are massively closing military installations yet now we want to develop a new Interstate that will cause severe damage to the ecology that attracts people to the South. Now let’s look at the bigger picture. What we are really doing is creating a straight shot from Oak Ridge TN (source of bunker busters, depleted uranium, and other nuclear weapons) to the ocean.

Conspiracy minded today? Just wait until I have made my deadlines and can sit down to draw up my conclusions that Interstate 3 is related to the depletion of the world oil supplies and that the Alaska drilling will be totally for military support.

I couldn’t stay at the computer. The uproar in the backyard called to my curiosity. Despite their cries, I could not find the Jays; however, as I glanced upward in the dusk sky a solitary bat flew over my head in search of 6000 mosquitoes. I hope he finds the home I’ve left for him and 119 companions on the side of my house.

I can hear a Cardinal chirp over and over. Our little non-flyer is gone. I see no sign of life or death. No adult Jays are around. Perhaps it caught a good breeze. The cat shows none of the signs of self-satisfaction it typically has after a good hunt. Somewhere in this something metaphysical waits to be drafted in iambic pentameter.

"Quit with the flash photography already bud!" 

Our little non-flyer is still alive. Everytime it gets to the ground I bring it back up to its "nest". Some large Blue Jays have taken to protecting it and sqwauking at me loudly whenever I approach the youngling. As much as it has flapped around on the ground I’m amazed the cat hasn’t taken it. When it is on the ground, the larger Jays are more abundant and in closer proximity. It’s really interesting to watch them protect the young one. Observing its flying attempts I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t take to the air if it survives a couple of days. 

I had hoped to end this week’s naked theme with a post on the Knoxville World Naked Bike Ride 2005 and perhaps some pictures but no such luck. Looks like a naked breakfast at IHOP or Cracker Barrel is in my future instead of some fleshy spectator recreation of stripping on the Cumberland Strip. Maybe 2006.