Today At Zazzle

Obama is my hotkey Single-sided by webcarve

Yeah. He's no Kucinich, but he'll do.

Yellow Elephant Sticker

Kudos to Operation Yellow Elephant!

Obama "Talk" template Sticker

Roll your own handwritten message!

Love it or Leave it Camo Tee


And because we can't do politics ALL the time, we celebrate PMS and
baseball.

WHAT? T-Shirt

There are no tears in baseball Shirt
by

webcarve

Get this custom shirt
at Zazzle

No, I haven't died, I got a (second) life.

I imagine that having died would be more comfortable. But don't take that seriously; I'm in the last stages of a med change and such thoughts are symptomatic of the lack of seritonin and/or dopamine, not a lack of meaning.

I've had a long and productive relationship with Paxil, but I'm afraid the relationship is over. Like many really long relationships, there's a period of withdrawal and readjustment. I'm feeling particularly autistic and multiple, with a good selection of involuntary movements and sensory issues thrown in.

Most critically, my judgment sucks, so for right now, I won't be saying much about much of significance until I'm stable again.

I need to obsess about something, but if I spent much time obsessed about society and politics under these conditions, I'd probably slit my throat. Right now it's almost impossible for me to take a deep breath and walk away, so I'm paying as little attention to current events as possible.

Instead, I've doing Second Life, climbing the learning curve and getting ready for what many think to be the next big thing; the 3-D web.

It's still an open question as to whether Lindon Lab's Second Life or one of a myriad of other such platforms, engines and combinations thereof will become the new http protocol, but it's an ...erm... virtual certainty that one will perhaps in time to materially affect the 2008 election. If not, it will affect the 2010 elections - or if there are no elections in 2010, make it rather difficult to impose an effective dictatorship.

Not that I've been doing anything on Second Life that involves politics.

It's all very fascinating and complex, but there's little that's worth sharing, or that I could share, since when I'm in this state I also tend to let my Id take me where it will, and you probably don't want to follow. For those that do, at some point I' MAY have something coherent enough to post to Erotic Truth.

But I'm holding onto that thought until my thought process is again supported with socially-approved chemical crutches. I'll be trying Welbutrin and with any luck, it will work and I won't have to spend any more time being undermedicated.

Speaking of Paxil, while I'm not a medical professional and not pretending in any way to have more authority than entirely too much personal experience; take this as a bit of practical advice. In the normal course of events, you should never, ever, ever take an antidepressant for more than a year, and certainly never without the ongoing support of a certified clinical psycopharmocologist. [Cue Laugh Track]

NORMAL people - those who have not had their neuro-chemistry permanently altered with a series of untreated clinical depressions - will not likely need to take any antidepressant longer than a few months so the following is intended for those who must manage depression like diabetics manage their insulin levels, adapting to the unpalatable reality that their mental health is largely dependent on direct chemical intervention.

In the realm of practical reality within these here United States, simply be glad that you can get a GP to prescribe antidepressants. Meanwhile, as someone who's had brushes here and there with mental health professionals - let me advise you that you owe you and your loved ones a sincere shot at becoming a gifted amateur specializing in you.

However, as I said, Paxil worked very well for me, for a long time, so well and so long that it's apparent worst downside bit me; it's a persistent med that you do become gradually habituated to. So you can't simply switch medications over a long weekend - the higher your dosage, the longer it takes to taper off, and the more uncomfortable it will be. There's a lot of information out there on the web about Paxil/paroxidine and like all medications, you need to balance the up sides with the down sides. Paxil has plenty of both, and like all such medications, what happens to you is something that really cannot be precisely predicted.

I'm utterly miserable and unfit for human company while unaccountably blessed that there are folks in my life that will tolerate me and and monitor my behavior. If that was not the case - and I cannot possibly underline this enough - it's urgent that you accomplish this in a mental hospital or clinic.

Still, six years of relative sanity and stability is worth a lot, even if it comes with a massive balloon payment at the end of the term, and I have nothing but praise for the wonderful boffins who came up with this magic pill. I just wish the ride could have lasted a little longer.

Let's take Viral Reality into the so called Real World.

Things Your Media Momma Didn't Tell You - Free Market News Network

The fact that most Americans oppose the war in Iraq, and want the president impeached, is testimony to the native intelligence and common sense of the citizens of this nation.

It sure isn't thanks to the quality of the news we're getting here in America.!

Here are some of the things you don't know if you just depend on the corporate media for your information:

The author, Dave Lindorff goes on to bullet point ten critical stories you never heard about from the mainstream media. YOU probably know about one or more, but your neighbor probably does NOT know about any of them. Go read them for yourself and then forward this link to every friend you have. Why this link? Well, because I have some terribly subversive ideas.

Now that you know about this, you see, as either a Citizen of the United States or as someone with a legitimate concern about what sort of threat this nation could become in the hands of an overt dictatorship, you have an affirmative duty to do something. Therefore, the question, "but what can I do" arises.

The thing that needs to be done is to get these truths off the net and into the wild, bypassing corporate, mainstream media. It could be as simple as printing out a hundred copies of the original story and pinning it to every bulletin board in town, or stuffing a copy under the door of every neighbor in your apartment complex.

You could do something as simple as wearing a T-Shirt, and being willing and able to answer the questions it provokes. To help with that, you could print out business or index cards with the URLS of reliable news sources on the web. (You might tape said cards to libarary terminals and leave bunches at your local cybercafe.) It's good to wear any relevant T-Shirt, but it's better to make your own for this issue.

Why? Because that's a sneaky way of getting the message out there. The MORE t-shirts out there with the same general keywords, and the more services they appear on, the better. You are addressing a whole group of people online who may not think much about politics in the ordinary run - but if an idea hits the front page of a T-shrt site, some small fraction of them WILL start thinking about it.

The same statistical approach applies to wearing that shirt. Hundreds of people will see it if you live, work and play in an urban area; perhaps even more. And, should you be somehow harassed in a newsworthy way for wearing it, that's pure gold - something like that probably WILL be covered in local and even national media.

You could go to zazzle.com, (link to my store) create a postcard or note-card with all the information you'd like, order ten or so, and start passing them out or mailing them to friends. Each one would have the url so that people could buy more to pass out or send to all the snail-mail addresses they have. (I'll add an example later - but if you have any artistic or writing talent, you should create your own. Once you have, please blog about it and link back to this article)

I've got a small selection of free-for-use images you could grab right away and use to make shirts and I'll be putting together a few more. and linking to them here. The one you see here links to the set and, just incidentally, works pretty well for items like buttons and cards.

If you like, you can find it at my zazzle store.

Misleader in Red by webcarve

Get this custom button at Zazzle

As you can see, it overlays really well, and will probably work a lot better using a grainy, low-contrast image of your own choosing.

Attention, Bill O'Rielly and Melanie Morgan

tag: Media matters, Hot Talk, hate speech, KSFO, Fox News, Melanie Morgan, Bill O'Rielly

Missing in Action

My apologies for my absence this week. I don't have any co-bloggers to cover for me, and I've been too sick to even work on spiked articles. That's how I missed yesterday's radio show too. I was too sick to even fake it.

Graphictruth

The Graphictruth
will be live on air at BlogTalk Radio at 2pm pst today, Murphy willing.

Call in: (646) 652-4834

We will be talking about KSFO, Spocko and of course, the latest embarrassment of the right, NewsBusters issues with the concept of "fair use." FAIR use includes attribution, and very much does not include leaching bandwidth.

The Sainted Barry Goldwater

In your heart, you know he's pissed!
by
webcarve

Get this custom poster at Zazzle

I created this after writing a post about Barry Goldwater and some of his "surprisingly liberal" views. They aren't liberal at all, and neither was he; he believed in the Constitution as the rock on which proper American Conservatism is founded upon.

"When you say 'radical right' today, I think of these moneymaking ventures by fellows like Pat Robertson and others who are trying to take the Republican Party away from the Republican Party, and make a religious organization out of it. If that ever happens, kiss politics goodbye." - Barry Goldwater

If you'd like to steal this image (as shown) - go right ahead. As everything on this blog that's mine, it's covered under an attribution license, so give me a link and I will be content.

Of course, if you'd like to spread a few of these around your home town - zazzle offers very attractive discounts for multiple copies.

UPDATE: For those coming from searches for "Barry Goldwater T-Shirts" - here's mine.

In your heart, you know he's pissed!
by
webcarve

Get this custom shirt at Zazzle

tag: Senator Barry Goldwater, conservative, republican, politics, principles, Political Ads