Saudis Tell Bush to Suck It

There are more professional headlines that I could use than "Saudis Tell Bush to Suck It" but they'd be lacking the edge that this one requires.

You see our fearless leader asked our so called ally to help us by pumping more oil. Let's take a look at the story, shall we.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (CNN) -- Saudi Arabia Friday rebuffed President Bush's request to immediately pump more oil to lower record prices, saying it does not see enough demand to increase production.

The Saudis said they would increase production if customers demanded it, Steven Hadley, Bush's national security adviser, said.

Ali al-Naimi, the Saudi oil minister, on Friday said the country had increased its production by 300,000 barrels a day on May 10 in response to customer requests.

Al-Naimi said the increased production would bring Saudi Arabia's daily production to 9.45 million barrels per day by June, according to the AP.

Bush is spending much of the day in closed-door meetings with King Abdullah, the Saudi ruler.

Friday's visit was Bush's second trip to the kingdom this year, coming as oil prices reached a new record high Friday of more than $127 a barrel. When he traveled to Riyadh in January, his request for the Saudis to pump more oil was also rejected."

I haven't any love for the Saudis for a whole host of reasons. I'll share a number of links with you that help illustrate why:

Saudi Scholar Spouts Holocaust Denial and Calls for Genocide on Hamas TV (Video)

The good old Saudis who punish victims of rape

Another Reason Why Saudi Arabia is A Problem

I Don't Trust The Saudis- Their Textbooks

In short they violate human rights, they fund terrorists and they promote intolerance for religious beliefs that are not based upon Islam. It galls me to no end that we help fund a racist, misogynist society that is working to undermine our own.

The People You Love Most

In the quiet of the night my son asked me to try and explain why boys fall in love with girls. He admitted that there are some girls that he likes playing with, but that is only because they play more like boys do.

I told him that love wasn't something that you could study or understand. It is not something to be analyzed. It is meant to be felt, to be experienced, to be lived. I wasn't surprised to see a look of confusion on his face. It is a bit more sophisticated than talking about superheroes.

And then he surprised me by asking if love could die. So I told him that a parent's love never dies and that he shouldn't be worried. He told me that wasn't it, he wanted to know if loved died because Jason's mom and dad had split up and so had Michael's.

I asked him what he thought and he said that he thought it could. I told him that I thought that he was right. And then he went back to asking me questions about boys and girls and how you know that you are in love with someone.

We talked about it for a bit and he whispered that love makes you act stupid. I whispered back, "you're right." And then we laughed.

I told him that you always need to let the people you love most know that you love them. I told him that when he was older we'd talk more about why boys and girls fall in love. He said ok, and then told me that he didn't think that girls could understand it because their brains are mushy.

I laughed pretty hard and told him that he'd find out that girls brains operate a little bit differently than ours do. Of course he asked me to give him an example. So I told him that one day a girl would ask him what he meant when he said something. I told him that she would spend time trying to understand the hows and whys of what we do.

He looked at me and said "really?" and I said "yes." And when he asked me to tell him more I elaborated a bit. I tried to explain to him that sometimes love did make you do silly things. And that sometimes when you really, really, really love someone you get nervous when you don't talk to them. And that sometimes when you are nervous it makes you angry because you are afraid.

And wouldn't you know it, that smart boy of mine totally got it. I was pretty impressed.

The conversation meandered a bit and then he told me again that he never wants to get married. I told him not to worry about it and he said ok. Then he told me that he might want to be a father so that I could be a grandpa.

I teased him and said that if he wanted to become a father he might have to kiss a girl. He said yuck and wanted to know if there was a way to just stick the baby stuff inside her without having to talk to her.

Since I heard his mother standing at the door I said that it was always better to do it that way and that talking to girls was a big waste of time. Ok, I almost got through that little speech without laughing, but I couldn't. He looked up at me and said "I know that you were only teasing."

There was a short pause and just as I thought he was going to ask another question I realized that he was asleep. Oy, I can only imagine what other conversations we have ahead of ourselves.

The Aftermath of my Birthday- A New Deal

"Action speaks louder than words
And I'm a man of great experience
I know you got another man
But I can love you better than him
Take my hand, don't be afraid
I'm gonna prove every word I say
I'm advertisin' love for free
So, you can place your ad with me"
Hard To Handle- Otis Redding

My name is Jack. I am 39 years-old but I think of myself as being much younger. I look at people who are around my age and sometimes I find myself thinking that they look old. Sometimes I think that they look middle aged. And now in the wake of my birthday I wonder if they say the same about me.

I can't say that I care all that much. I haven't any critics who are tougher on me, than me. When it comes to beating myself up it is fair to say that I have a golden glove. Most of the time I am good about it, but every now and then I struggle.

I struggle because at 39 I feel like I should have more to show for myself than I do. I feel like that I have fallen short of the mark. I look at this blog and see so many posts that I like. I think that in some areas I have really done a pretty good job and then I come across some stuff that makes me ill. What the hell was I thinking.

As I sit here writing I find myself censoring my words like I never have. The pure posts where I poured out my soul become fewer and fewer. Those moments where I was most honest are harder to share. In my frustration I find that I take refuge by not saying what I once would.

Deep connections have been broken. Some have been forged anew and are stronger than they ever were and some are forever broken. Some who read these words will falsely assume that I am referring to them and others will not even be aware. I won't tell them. I won't open the door.

As I muddle through this strange period of time I am quite conscious of the things that are happening around me. Change is in the air. The coming year is going to be filled with it. I fear and welcome change. The fear is simple. I can't help but wonder if the change is going to make things harder. Will it hurt, what will the consequences of those actions be.

At the same time I celebrate it. I remind myself that change is an opportunity. So I try to take a deep breath and just roll with things, but it is not always easy.

And now for a confession, I didn't expect to receive any gifts for my birthday and wasn't real pleased with those I did. I know, it is petty. It is juvenile, but this year it rubbed me the wrong way.

And now on to another post.

Graffiti- Good To See That He Has An Edumacation

Blog Fodder- How Do You Come Up With Material

A friend from the real world recently accosted me about my blog and asked if I ever run out of material to blog about. I laughed and said that it never happens, I can always find something to write about. Finding material is never hard.

The hard part is taking the raw material and making something meaningful out of it. If you post as often I am wont to do you will find that it takes a significant amount of work to produce a decent post. In the early days I had less concern about quality and just slapped stuff up there. It is a habit that I find less endearing so I have made a point of trying to more carefully manage things.

One of the advantages to having a blog like this one is that there is no topic that I cannot cover. I can literally write about anything and I do. As the seventeen long time readers know there are certain themes that continually crop up and I certainly go through cycles in which I focus more on specific areas.

Lately I have been spending more time pumping out pieces of Fragments of Fiction. I'll keep doing that until I am bored with it and I'll focus on something else.

Inspiration for the blog comes from all sorts of places. I look at what happens in my life and spend some time chronicling it. I take all sorts of news stories and comment on them. Standard resources include Fark, The NY Times, CNN and various other sources of news and information.

Some of my favorite posts come from experiences I have with people. The most popular posts tend to be those that touch upon some common human experience.

I am also inclined to look at the wacky, kind of out there post. Here in my corner of cyberspace it is not unusual for me to clean out the dusty shelves inside my noggin. Sometimes I find some real treasures and sometimes I discover that I am full of more crap than I realized.

Speaking of things that float through my mind, I have been playing around with creating a post about a mohel. Ever wonder what they are thinking about. From time to time I have. Do they ever find themselves distracted or bored by what they are doing. Does this make them want to take a shortcut.

Do any of them promote themselves with a goofy slogan like "Have scalpel will travel," or "Just a a little off the top."

I wonder.

Later on I'll come back and share more of what I wonder about.

I Am Going Get A Pair of Wings

BEX, Switzerland - A Swiss pilot strapped on a jet-powered wing and leaped from a plane Wednesday for the first public demonstration of the homemade device, turning figure eights and soaring high above the Alps.

Yves Rossy's performance in front of the world press capped five years of training and many more years of dreaming.

"This flight was absolutely excellent," the former fighter pilot and extreme sports enthusiast said after touching down on an airfield near the eastern shore of Lake Geneva.

Rossy, 48, had stepped out of the Swiss-built Pilatus Porter aircraft at 7,500 feet and unfolded the rigid eight-foot wings strapped to his back before jumping.

Passing from free fall to a gentle glide, Rossy then triggered four jet turbines and accelerated to 186 miles per hour, about 65 miles per hour faster than the typical falling skydiver. A plane that flew at some distance beside him measured his speed.

Rossy's website is here.

Seal Tries Sex with Penguin

Found this story on Live Science and couldn't help but wonder if the seal was half blind.

"A seal has been caught on camera trying to have sex with a penguin.

This seems to be the first known example of a sexual escapade between a mammal and another kind of vertebrate such as a bird, reptile or fish, "although some mammals are known to have attempted sexual relief with inanimate — including dead things — objects," said researcher Nico de Bruyn, a mammal ecologist at the University of Pretoria in South Africa.

One summer morning, scientists observing elephant seals on a beach on Marion Island near the Antarctic spotted a young male Antarctic fur seal subduing a king penguin.

"At first we thought it was hunting the penguin, but then it became clear that his intentions were rather more amorous," de Bruyn recalled today via email.

The roughly 240-pound seal subdued the 30-pound adult penguin by lying on it. The hapless bird of unknown sex struggled, rapidly flapping its flippers and attempting to stand and flee, without luck.

The seal then alternated between resting on the penguin and thrusting its pelvis at the bird in vain attempts to insert its penis for 45 minutes. Natural, unsuccessful sexual escapades by this variety of seal with members of its own species may last as long as this penguin assault did, "but yes, it is quite a long time and thus unusual," de Bruyn told LiveScience."