Ontario Empoblog

...isn't a boycott sexist? From the Ontario Empoblog (Latest OVVA news here )

In the last post , I mentioned that the Puget Consumers Co-Op began to boycott Chinese goods in 1996 in protest of conditions in Tibet. I just went to their website and searched for the words "boycott China." I got the following message: No matches were found for '(boycott or boycotted or boycotting or boycotter or boycotts) and china' I did find one mention of Tibet - in an article on the origins of rhubarb . I did a little more digging, and found out that the boycott of Chinese goods ended in 1999 : Members of Puget Consumers Cooperative have voted 52 percent to 48 percent to reject a boycott of China. It is the second such vote at PCC, and reverses one taken three years ago. Of the 35,000 active members, about 8.5 percent voted this time, up from about 6 percent in 1996.... A group of members first proposed a China boycott in 1995. PCC's nine-member board of trustees, which is elected by co-op members, rejected the boycott. The anti-China group took up a peti...

This blog has touched upon China in two different ways of late. The Shi Tao controversy, in which U.S. firms such as Yahoo are alleged to be helping the Chinese government to repress its people. The Wal-Mart controversy, in which the Ontario Mountain Village Association and others oppose Wal-Mart because it offers low-cost Chinese goods. Assisting in Chinese Repression Regarding the first issue, Jennifer has provided the following comment : U.S. companies like Yahoo that are cooperating with China’s regulations are enabling the assault on human rights to continue. In my opinion, we need to cease ALL trade with China, period. Microsoft doesn’t need to do business with China. They make trillions already. Allowing them to do so, and to comply with Chinese law in such a way that violates everything our nation stands for, should be illegal. If, however, we allow them to continue doing business with China, and that many Chinese are online, there is no way that the government can prevent...

From SFGate.com : U.S. tech giants are helping the Chinese express themselves online -- as long as they don't write about democracy, Tibet, sex, Tiananmen Square, Falun Gong, government corruption or any other taboo subject. Microsoft bans "democracy" and "Dalai Lama" from the Chinese version of its blog site. Yahoo recently turned over information that helped the Chinese government track down and imprison a journalist for the crime of forwarding an e-mail. Google omits banned publications from its Chinese news service. Critics say that cooperating with governments to suppress free speech violates human rights, international law and corporate ethics. But what the experts can't agree on is what the companies should do about it. The Internet -- even with limitations -- is generally considered a powerful democratizing force. If international companies withdrew from the Chinese Internet market, the result might mean even fewer chances for free communications the...

A quote from the recent meeting at Redeemer Lutheran Church of people opposing a Wal Mart in northwest Ontario: While most at Wednesday's meeting raised concerns about the impact a Supercenter would have on traffic in the area, others listed a litany of complaints against Wal-Mart as reasons for their opposition. "The city does not need the revenue," said activist Richard Briggs. "The mom-and-pop businesses do not need the made-in-China, predatory pricing competition." So I guess that Richard Briggs opposes stores that sell goods made in China. Although it needs to be confirmed by the executive membership, I suspect that the Ontairo Vineyard Village Association will do him one better, and call for a boycott of all stores that sell or promote goods made in China. More from the Daily Bulletin article: A Wal-Mart spokesman could not be reached for comment. The company has previously stated that its low prices help raise the standard of living for customers as a re...

From David Bauder/AP/Yahoo : Eight years, 2,792 pages. That was the effort author Bob Spitz put into telling their story, although editors whittled his manuscript down to 856 pages (minus the end notes). "The Beatles: The Biography," available Nov. 1, is a compulsively readable history that brings the same exhaustive level of scholarship to the Fab Four that Robert Caro brought to Robert Moses and Lyndon Johnson.... Lennon, McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr agreed on their version of the Beatles' story, a mix of truth and legend, and it formed the basis of what Spitz considers the band's only other serious biography, written by Hunter Davies four decades ago. Some of the stories were told so often that the lines between truth and fiction had even blurred for the surviving Beatles. Spitz set out to make the record straight. "I interviewed 650 people on this," he says. "I approached this book as if nobody had ever written a biography on the B...

A few months ago, I could not have imagined that on a Friday night, I would drive by the Shell at 1202 East Yorba Linda, Placentia, CA 92870 , see a gas price of $2.579 per gallon... ...and be ecstatically enthusiastic about the pricing, bragging about it all weekend. Big change from a few weeks ago . But now we're getting to the levels in late August. We have a ways to go to get to the early August prices. Witness : The Shell charged over $2.40 a gallon for gas, and we wouldn't stand for that. No, we kept on searching and got gas for $2.369 at the Conoco. Those were the days, my friend. We thought they'd never end. From the Ontario Empoblog (Latest OVVA news here )

...of the blog entries that mention the phrase totally dismal and excellent . From the Ontario Empoblog (Latest OVVA news here )

Joey deVilla continued : It has been said that the goth subculture is derived from two earlier subcultures: the new romantics and the punks. I don't know if Archie or his pals ever appeared in a new romantic incarnation (wearing clothes from Parachute, listening to Visage and Vince Clarke-era Depeche Mode), but they've gone punk at least once, most notably in a "comic-within-a-comic" in issue 1 of Anarchy Comics.... Check out the full comic segment, ...[which] may not be safe for work if your workplace is a little on the conservative side....I rather like the lampooning of hippie parents -- the pot-smoking Mr. Andrews (Archie's dad) reminds me of a few of my friends' folks. [A tip of the hat to Josh Karpf for providing the comic!] I'm at work and haven't checked it out yet, so I don't know if it's totally dismal and excellent (or, in this instance, it may be more appropriate to say that it's f@@kin' abysmal). Go here if you'd like...

Check out the Joey deVilla (Accordion Guy) post about an Archies comic in which Betty goes goth to get attention. Joey's comment: It's a little-known fact that your subculture is over the minute it becomes a plot point in an Archie Comic. Of course, if Al Hartley had inked the comic, perhaps Stryper or Undercover would have dropped by. Blake Reitz says , "I'm a little sad now that Archie has no continuity." What, did Jughead go outlaw country in the previous month? Caitlin links to an easy-to-read version of the comic at statusbar.com , and offers the following comment: I love how they have to say "V Box" instead of X Box, but are free to use Sonic the Hedgehog since the same people that publish "Archie" publish the Sonic comic books. And here's what the Sketch Pad says: Are you passive-agressive and lonely? Are your friends ignoring you? Well, Betty’s got the perfect solution! Go goth! All the cool kids are doing it! Sketch Pad says mo...

I was reading a Souls Road post and decided to explore an attempt at blog valuation. My blog is worth $23,710.68 . How much is your blog worth? The calculation is based upon this : AOL bought Weblogs inc., the two year old weblog network founded by Jason Calacanis and Brian Alvey, for a number that is rumored to be anywhere between $25 million and $40 million. In this process, Time Warner may be providing some ideas as to the valuation of blogs by traditional media.... Many in the blogosphere say that traffic is not a good measure of what blogs are but that conversation, as represented by links and indexes like Technorati, represent a more accurate view of the value of a blog.... In acquiring Weblogs Inc., AOL has now provided us with some numbers traditional media are willing to pay for a blog. Looking at the numbers above, one can try to guess at the value of a link from an external site. a single link on the weblogsinc network represents 0.002258559942180087 percent of the over...

OK, I did my research . From the New York Times on August 1, 1875: Andrew Johnson, ex-President of the United States and member of the Senate from Tennessee, died at the house of his daughter, Mrs. W.R. Brown, near Elizabethtown, Carter County, Tenn., at 2 o'clock yesterday morning....[He evinced] his continued hold upon the popular heart by a subsequent election to the Senate in the teeth of a bitter personal and political opposition.... On the expiration of his term, in March, 1869, he retired to his home at Greenville, Tenn. In 1870 he was a candidate for the United States Senate, but was defeated by two votes... Don't forget that Senators were elected by state legislatures at this time. ...in 1872 he was defeated on independent nomination for Congress. He came again into public life, however, in the beginning of the present year, being elected to the United States Senate by the Tennessee Legislature after an exciting contest, receiving on the fifty-fifth ballot fifty-two v...

I first mentioned the opposition to Harriet Miers in my post "Further Proof That George W Bush is a Communist," which documented significant conservative opposition to the Miers nomination. I never got around to mentioning Dianne Feinstein's comments : Sen. Dianne Feinstein met privately with Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers on Monday, emerging to describe Miers as unusually soft-spoken and to defend her against what the senator has called sexist attacks.... Feinstein, D-Calif., is the only woman on the Senate Judiciary Committee that will hold hearings and vote on whether to send Miers' nomination to the full Senate.... During a CNN interview Sunday, Feinstein said the criticism of Miers by conservatives was “sexist,” adding, “I do not believe they would do that to a man.” Asked Monday about the sexism issue Feinstein said: “This is a woman, after all, who's been head of a very large bar association in a large state and the head of a large corporate law pract...

Jennifer commented on a previous post of mine: Somehow, though, I'm not sure how "protected" I'd feel in Israel right now. I just finished watching Ray Vander Laan's "That the World May Know" video series. (If you read this , and this , you'll understand some of the background behind this ). Could such a trip be mounted today? Frequently . St. Jerome has said, "There are five Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the land of Israel." Israel in Depth will concentrate on studying that "fifth gospel." We will examine the history and concepts contained in the bible in their geographical and cultural settings. This is an educational trip with an intentional focus on significant faith development for participants. Tour leaders will help participants explore the underlying relationship between the land of Israel and the history of the people living there. Study of specific cultural, archaeological and geographical sites in Israel will...

Jesse Jackson (at least in the early 1970s) understood very well that you don't mortgage your entire future on a single political party, and that you have a better chance of achieving your goals by positively encouraging multiple political parties. Cindy Sheehan is taking this strategy in reverse, trying to alienate both political parties. Now she's going after leading Democrats: Cindy Sheehan is at it again, confronting those prolonging the Iraq war. Without letting up on the White House, the mom of one of the first 2,000 U.S. military fatalities is also speaking up about Sen. Hillary Clinton. The New York senator is one of many Democrats with confused positions on Iraq. WLBT : A grieving mother who's become the face of the anti-war movement says any politician who supports the Iraq conflict shouldn't be supported -- even if it's Hillary Rodham Clinton. Cindy Sheehan says she met with Clinton in Washington last month to discuss the war. She says the senator told h...

With apologies to Shrinkette . In a recent post about mistyping, Jennifer replied : Hmmmm....sounds like a Freudian slip to me! Although I'm not certain how unsold/unsoled relates to my secret longing for various family members...unless it reveals a shoe fetish. Well, that just begged for some research. Eager to please : The Freudian Slip Freud's term for these was "faulty action" (Fehleistung), for which his editor/translator adopted the pseudo-Greek scientism parapraxis. The colloquial label is "Freudian slip" -- and as we'll see, the old man found some beauts. Freud's fascinating 1901 book on the subject (The Psychopathology of Everyday Life) distinguishes errors of speech (Versprechen), memory (Vergessen), and action (Vergreifen). In every case there is presumed to be an unconscious determinant of the faulty action, which can sometimes be inferred directly from the context.... But I believe that this anonymous statement ( collected by Rand Linds...

My brakes are fixed. I didn't mind the mass transit itself - it's just that it took some effort to get to the mass transit stop. From the Ontario Empoblog (Latest OVVA news here )

I started my Yahoo! LAUNCHcast video watching session tonight by watching/hearing Backstreet Boys' "Incomplete" video. I've listened to it three times this evening so far. Plus the time that I listened to it on Sunday . And yes, when you watch the video, it's typical Backstreet Boys, but perhaps a little rougher with fire and junk toward the end. Yes, _ _m n_t tr_ndy. Here's what the Amazon.com reviewer had to say about the album. On Never Gone, the Backstreet Boys crib from the pop foundation they helped establish. Like a lot of smart popsters on the rebound, the reunited fab five broach their return by borrowing from the current hit makers. Even after a four-year hiatus, the flecks of new influence won't matter a bit to the fans. The boys' signature sugar-coated yearning softens every song to a melty consistency, and the lyrics haven't lost any of their babe-magnet pull.... Somehow, I suspect Tammy La Gorce could have written that review withou...

I think this one will be happy all the way through. Let's see : Happy Homemakers #25 Club held its regular meeting Oct. 17 at 5:30 p.m. at the Russellville Housing meeting room with six members present. The meeting was called to order by president Essie McKinney. Thought for the month was “Autumns of the past” and was read by Joyce Barker. The Pledge to the Flag and Homemaker's Creed was said by all. Words of Inspiration was led by Essie. The lesson was “Our trees and forests, take part and take care,” given by the president. The minutes of the last meeting was read by Geraldine Bunton. Any relation to Emma ? A treasurer report was given by Margaret Todd. Essie then thanked the group for their work on the Homemakers' float for the Tobacco and Heritage Festival Parade. Just to clarify, this newspaper (the News-Democrat & Leader) is published in Kentucky. Tobacco makes the people in the area very happy. Margaret Todd, Joyce Baker, and Zula Bailey helped with this greatly....

Between proposed freeway closures, car problems, bankruptcies, and other failures, it's time for some happy news, don't you think ? Jennifer Reinhart announces the opening of her home-based quilting business in Newport, I'm Sew Happy Quilting. Reinhart offers professional, long-arm machine quilting services specializing in computer and hand guided designs, "and affordable quilts for everyday pleasures," she said. "The services I offer (include) many options for quilting - basting for the hand quilter, binding services, and a variety of other options for finishing quilts." To keep the mood happy, I won't say why she started a home-based business. From the Ontario Empoblog (Latest OVVA news here )

(Notice the thematic unity.) Yes, there is a magazine (or at least a website ) called Failure Magazine. A few content samples: When Grizzly People founder Timothy Treadwell appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman in 2001 the host quipped, “Is it one day going to happen [that] we read a news article about you being eaten by one of these bears?” The studio audience howled but Letterman proved to be prophetic. On October 6, 2003, Treadwell and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard were attacked and eaten by a grizzly bear in Alaska’s Katmai National Park. Since 1939, [Joe's Diner] has been a fixture in Lee, and over the years it has come to be regarded as the quintessential American diner. In part, the establishment owes its fame to Norman Rockwell, who, in 1958, chose it as the inspiration for "The Runaway," one of his most enduring images....From 1955-2000, the atmosphere, décor and even the prices remained almost unchanged....Thus it’s safe to say that Sorrentino’s retirem...

From the late Ronald Reagan : Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats believe every day is April 15. This ties in with the popular perception in baby seal clubber land that Republicans are fiscally responsible, and Democrats are reckless spenders. In a corollary, Democrats would encourage people to file for bankruptcy. Well, actually they did, in the early 19th century. Andrew Jackson did it. But in retrospect, he had some good reasons for doing so: In the 1820s Andrew Jackson came up with a brilliant plan to encourage development in the United States of America. The plan was to created the idea of legal bankruptcy were one could wipe some of your debt clean if you found yourself in way over your head. The idea was to do away with debtor’s prisons and allow people to climb out of the hole of impossible debt. Before this idea was introduced people were routinely sent to prison for years on debts as small as $100.00. With such a possibility looming over yo...

Various Ontario Vineyard Village Association stories have been picked up by the keywordblogger empire, including its Bankruptcy blog. See here . This suggests a solution - to end the perceived threats to residential dwellers in the Fourth and Vineyard Area, perhaps all of the businesses in a threatened residential area should go bankrupt. Actually, my previous proposal will probably encourage this action anyway. So how should the related organization, Ontario Mountain Village Assocation, react ? They should react in kind and campaign for Wal-Mart's bankruptcy. This would solve all sorts of problems, since you wouldn't have excess traffic, and since you wouldn't be attracting a criminal element. Whoops - the criminal element would be attracted to the empty buildings. But bankruptcy does seem to solve our traffic problems, and would also solve my commuter situation . After all, if I don't have a job, then I don't have to commute to it. And I wouldn't be able to a...

Monday was a fun commute. Right before arriving at work Monday morning, I heard wonderful squealing from my car EXCEPT when I was using my brakes. Initially while driving home to Ontario I didn't hear it, but within a few minutes I was hearing it again. So that car was out of commission until I could get the brakes fixed. I couldn't use my wife's car, because she needed it to go to Los Angeles County on Tuesday. I was going to borrow my father in law's car, but when he went to start it to get it to me, it wouldn't start. Enter Metrolink . In the ideal world, I'd hop on the Ontario train that went straight down to Orange County. Southern California is not the ideal world. With the employment centers spread out all over the place, I don't see how you can design a system that gets from every residential area to every employment area. So I had to hop a ride to the North Main Corona station, and select the correct train to get me to my location in Orange County...

has been posted here . From the Ontario Empoblog (Latest OVVA news here )

I meant to type the word "unsold," but I typed "unsolved" instead. I went to correct "unsolved," and mistakenly ended up with "unsoled." Perhaps typos reveal your innermost personality, which means I wanna be a criminal shoe salesman. (And you can be my criminal shoe salesgirl. Oh yippie , yippie yo yo .) From the Ontario Empoblog (Latest O.V.V.I. news here )

We'll find out, I guess : Despite the memory of Hurricane Katrina, at least 90 percent of residents along the Florida Keys refused to evacuate as Hurricane Wilma swirled toward the state. "We're not New Orleans," said Elaine Chinnis, walking her dogs along Duval Street in Key West a few hours before Wilma was expected to pass by to the north. The people here are not only hurricane weary, they've dealt with four this year alone, they're also hurricane savvy. They insist they're not being cavalier by refusing to leave. Instead, they're simply not that afraid of a hurricane that wasn't expected to make a direct hit on Key West.... "I'm disappointed, but I understand it," Monroe County Sheriff Richard Roth said. "They're tired of leaving because of the limited damage they sustained during the last three hurricanes." Officials hate that attitude. A storm surge of up to 17 feet, enough to cause devastating flooding, was possib...

From AP/Yahoo : The latest "Got Milk?" commercial hit a little too close to home for Major League Baseball. Poking fun at the league's steroid scandal, the television ad for the California Milk Processor Board talks about a player getting pulled from a game "after testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance." In the next scene, a coach pulls a carton of milk from the slugger's locker. "There is nothing humorous about steroid abuse," said Tim Brosnan, executive vice president for business for the league. "I would think that the California Milk Processor Board and their advertising agency would know better regarding an issue that threatens America's youth." Perhaps MLB would prefer that the issue not be mentioned at all. Incidentally, there is a site in the Fourth and Vineyard area where people, even young children, can buy performance-enhancing substances, no questions asked: RALPHS 1837 E 4TH ST ONTARIO, CA 91764 Store Phon...

I've been searching for some type of account of the end of the Songs of Faith and Devotion tour. I did find this bit : For all their success on stage, however, Depeche Mode are more famous for their excess off stage. The two-year long tour supporting Songs of Faith and Devotion culminated with them travelling separately and living in different hotels.... "Ah, the infamous Songs of Faith and Devotion tour," laughed Andrew Fletcher from his record company office in Paris recently. "The truth is, that was quite possibly the worst time for the band. I was depressed from all the touring, Dave was a drug addict and the whole band wasn't on speaking terms. Funnily enough, the only thing I remembered about that tour was our Singapore stop in 1994 when we played at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. "It was a very good gig, even if we spent our times separately because it was a difficult time for us," added the affable 44-year-old. "It was sad the way things tur...