Hi Folks,

DUMBAGRA is prescribed to treat Intellectual Dysfunction (ID).

If you take any medicines that have nitrates in them (like nitroglycerin, for headache) - every day or even once in a while - you should NOT take DUMBAGRA, as it could cause your head to explode, if accidentally dropped.

Discuss your general health status with your pool cleaner to ensure that you are healthy enough to engage in intellectual activity. If you experience eye pain, nausea, dubya vision, dubya hearing, Thinking Twice, or any other dubya discomforts during thought formation, seek immediate semi-professional help.

The most common side effects of DUMBAGRA are dumb-ass grinning, and upset stomach (in others). Less commonly, yellowish vision, blurred speech, or sensitivity to the death of innocent people may briefly occur.

In rare instances, politicians taking intellectual dysfunction medicines, including DUMBAGRA, reported a sudden decrease or loss of language skills. It is not possible to determine whether these events are related directly to these medicines or to inherited stupidity from too much monkey vaccine. If you experience sudden decrease or loss of common sense, stop taking intellectual dysfunction medicines, including DUMBAGRA, and call your veterinarian right away. (Use the phone if that makes it easier. Boom boom!)

Although Inspiration lasting for more than four hours may occur rarely with all ID treatments in this drug class, to avoid long-term damage, it is important to seek immediate help, from some one else taking DUMBAGRA . . . probably.

If you are older than age 15, or have serious sleep walking, sleep jumping or just plain sleep standing problems (or extreme facial inversion resulting in breathing in when you should be breathing out), your doctor may start you at the lowest dose (25 mg) of DUMBAGRA. If you are taking protease inhibitors, such as for the treatment of IQ scrapping, your doctor may recommend a 25-mg dose and may limit you to a maximum single dose of 25 mg of DUMBAGRA in a 48-hour period.

If you are in therapy for the treatment of unusually rich blood colour or Swahili Expansive Elephantitis of the Prostate (SEEP), you should not take a dose of greater than 25 mg of DUMBAGRA at the same time (within 4 hours) as you chant your Rectal Mantra.

Remember to protect yourself and your partner from intellectually transmitted diseases by wearing appropriate headgear when in the Missionary Position.

Favourite Reader Comments of the Week

Joe,
I think you'll find that the words for 'Morning Has Broken' are springing 'fresh from the word' not 'world', Eddie

Joe,
First of all, I have no idea why I'm on your list. In the future, you might want to put people on your list who have actually asked instead of launching another self indulgent bloggy spammy thing to people who don't care. Having said that, I feel the need to respond. . . . (etc . . ) Al

(Note: Mr. Al then went on to write about five pages of comments about his views on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Of course, I removed Al from the newsletter even though he didn't use the Groucho magic word: DELETE. See, folks, the problem with being a pamphleteer is that you don't really know who cares . . until you ask. It's not a matter of preaching to the converted. It's a matter of disseminating information and knocking on doors. Period. And after three years of writing this newsletter, (150 issues) I have a consistent figure of 9 out of 10 people (90%) who choose to remain on and only 10% who ask to be removed. Nine out of ten is an excellent result and is a refutation of the 'people who don't care' argument - so perhaps Al can learn something from reality, instead of preaching pamphleteer theory . . . to someone who cares.)

Greetings Joe, from a small village in Greece.
Subject: Your wonderful website and blog

Our mutual friend in Australia Anna . . . sent me your website which I enjoyed and have circulated throughout my global mailing list. A brief intro of my family and me.  I grew up in NC, went to college in Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina which at that time was a small island of consciousness in a very racist and ignorant state. Took my first acid in '68 in 10th grade. Hitchiked to Haight Ashbury and later in that same summer of '69 went to Woodstock. At college I was very much an anti war activist and went to demonstrations at DC several times. Moved to San Francisco, met and married my wife and have been together 30 years.  Moved from Northern California awhile to a log cabin in the Rockies of Western Montana. Had my life threatened for journalistic efforts on behalf of ending clear cutting of forests while promoting hemp alternatives. For most of 20 years lived on the jungle side of Maui Hawaii. Enjoyed being around people of like mind  but the creeping shadows of the US iron curtain had me looking at the world map for alternative living situations. Checked out Bali and Thailand and eventualy purchased a land base on a small island in Fiji called Koro. Several other friends as well have chosen to be living near us. (Here is a website.) Before we make our move there, we decided to leave the US and bring with us my  mother to her ancestral home in Greece where we live as extended family along with my wife and 3 children. My mother passed away recently after her 100th birthday. Homeschooling and sharing experiences together including having drunk Ayahuasca several times as a family.  My son, who is an excellent guitarist, is in Switzerland working at a small hotel which offers unique portals. It is called the "Sacred Mushroon Church of Switzerland" (site) and has inexpensive rooms, vegan meals and ceremonial events. A couple of times a week I send out a mailing called "Links by George" which reaches over 800 people and several blogs. . . . A nice week to you, George Douvris

(Note: Here is George's email address if anyone wants to write him and get on the list of 'Links By George.')

Announcing the First Annual "Inspire George Bush Film Festival"
by Arianna Huffington

It turns out the way to George Bush's heart is through a TV or movie screen.

Remember how he was finally moved to action on Katrina only after Dan Bartlett put together a DVD compilation of the horrors in New Orleans?

Now comes word that Bush was inspired to create the world's largest marine protected area after watching a private White House screening of Voyage to Kure, a PBS documentary on the dangers facing the area's endangered marine life made by Jean-Michel Cousteau, Jacques Cousteau's son.

The presidential order is the single biggest act of conservation in U.S. history, creating the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands National Monument, a marine preserve larger than all of America's national parks combined.

That must have been some documentary.

After all, Bush has never hesitated to put short-term business interests above long-term environmental concerns. And, true to form, his administration had originally planned to roll back the limited protections for the Pacific Ocean area put in place by President Clinton. But, after watching the Cousteau film, Bush suddenly started channeling Julia Butterfly Hill. From the L.A. Times:

The film seemed to catch Bush's imagination, according to senior officials and others in attendance. The president popped up from his front-row seat after the screening; congratulated filmmaker Jean-Michel Cousteau... and urged the White House staff to get moving on protecting these waters.

"He was enthusiastic," Cousteau said. "The show had a major impact on him... I think he really made a discovery -- a connection between the quality of our lives and the oceans."

All of which got me thinking: we need to show this guy more movies and TV shows! Maybe make an event out of it. Sundance on the Potomac. Call it the "Inspire George Bush Film Festival." article

 
Wit and Wisdom of Will Rogers

1.  Never slap a man who's chewing tobacco.
2.  Always drink upstream from the herd.
3.  There are three kinds of men: The ones that learn by reading.  The few who learn by observation.  The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves.
4.  Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

ABOUT GROWING OLDER...

The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.

Some people try to turn back their odometers.  Not me, I want people to know "why" I look this way.  I've traveled a long way and some of the roads weren't paved.

When you are dissatisfied and would like to go back to youth, think of Algebra.

You know you are getting old when everything either dries up or leaks.

I don't know how I got over the hill without getting to the top.
(thanks to Bill Lempke)

Favourite Reviews of the Week

" Another great outlet for me to discover and explore music that wasn't played in my parent's house was at weekly roller skating nights at the Christian high school that was affiliated with the grammar school I attended. We'd skate on the gym floor as the sound system played organ music (which I enjoyed), but certain nights the music selector would break out some pop songs like the ridiculous, "Shaddap You Face," by Joe Dolce. Joshua B

" . . . one of the most gifted musician commutators who ever existed, Joe Dolce . . . is very active in peace and supports Cindy [Sheehan's] conferences and has also written in the most beautiful Lennon/Ono genre I've seen [No Reason 2 Awake]." G. Floyd, Convenor, Women's Peace Train.

(Note: To hear a demo of 'No Reason 2 Awake', go to the Sonicbids Electronic Presskit, under Audio:) Presskit

Favourite Porn Spam Subject Heading of the Week

Sender: fpsa0004 Subject: Are you tired of staring at Playboy trying to cause erection?

(Note: No, actually I'm tired of reading those articles in Playboy trying to cause intelligence. Time for my Dumbagra pill.)

PAINT LIKE JACKSON POLLOCK
Interactive site - just move your mouse! PAINT!

U.S.A. - Arizona Minutemen
Broadcast: 07/06/2005
Reporter: Jill Colgan

Transcript
COLGAN: The US/Mexico border is more than three thousand kilometres long, passing through harsh desolate terrain. More than one million illegal immigrants try to cross this border each year. Hundreds die in the attempt.
The US Border Patrol catches many of them, swooping on fugitives like these, but hundreds of thousands evade capture and disappear into the United States.
CHRIS SIMCOX: Three years after September 11 our borders are still wide open. We have the criminal element that rules our border, we have anarchy on our border, we have out of control illegal immigration and the greatest threat to our national security.
COLGAN: The Minutemen say they'll do what their government won't ­ shut the border ­ but beyond these hills lies a human wave of migrants, every bit as determined to find a better life in America, prepared to do the jobs Americans don't want, for wages Americans won't take.
ISABEL GARCIA: People migrate because of sheer economic desperation. It is not something that they take lightly. It is not something you take joy in seeing as we see people who die and suffer crossing into this country.
COLGAN: Tombstone, Arizona, an apt headquarters for the Minutemen. Amid echoes of the Wild West, they're making their own stand by the OK Corral, a most unlikely band of gunslingers.
MINUTEMEN LEADER: [Addressing new recruits] Just watch. That is your whole job. You don't speak to them. You don't give them water. You don't give them anything at all. You just tell the border patrol and if they get up and go by you there's no comment. You don't say anything to them. You let them go. Border Patrol gets there you point out which way they went. article
(thanks to Justine Stewart)

Arnold's Army

"[San Diego] I feel so much safer. Arnold's Army is on the way to the Mexican border. One thousand National Guardsmen of California, guys with names like Sanchez, Kowalski, Huang and Gutierrez, are being sent by a guy named Schwarzenegger to stop the invasion of immigrants. OK, I'm down with that -- ever since the first Pilgrims immigrated to these shores, just about every new American has wanted to shut the Golden Door behind them.
But the bogus border patrol has nothing to do with stopping illegal immigration. After all, even as dim a flashlight as our president, who ordered the governor to send the Guard to battle stations, knows that a couple hundred more professional border patrolmen would do a better job than a thousand weekend warriors marching around the desert. And besides, if the Guard actually stopped the flow, there'd be riots in West Hollywood when restaurant patrons discover they'll have to bus their own dishes.
According to George Bush, there's more to this boundary buildup than stopping trans-border commuters. The president tells us the war on immigrants is just part of the War on Terror. Our borders, he tells us, are open and the bad guys can just wade right in. But if we've learned anything at all from the Sept. 11 attack, it's that al Qaeda flies business class." (from Greg Palast's Armed Madhouse travel blog.)

Mexican Border Towns Fear US Crackdown
By Julie Watson

Patricia Lopez's journey toward a better life in the United States ended with a nighttime robbery, a twisted knee and a Border Patrol escort to the frontier - where she was dumped at dawn without a peso in her pocket, 1,575 miles from home. She's far from alone: Nearly 1 million people, many of them penniless, were turned back across the border last year, and analysts fear that tougher new US border enforcement will inundate border towns with the desperate and the destitute.

Migrant shelter directors are scrambling for funds and considering hiring more staff to keep their doors open 24 hours a day in anticipation of a record number of migrants being repatriated.

"Everyone is getting ready because we're worried there is going to be a mass deportation of people," said Francisco Loureiro, who runs a migrant shelter in Nogales that houses up to 120 people a night. "We're worried there's going to be too many people to tend to, and we just don't have the room for more."
Most migrants try to bring a little money to the border, but they are vulnerable to bandits who prey on illegal crossers and can find most of their funds drained by the fees of people smugglers. After Lopez crossed into the Arizona desert, robbers stripped her male companions down to their underwear in the night and stole her money as well - about $130. article

MUSIC ?

"A friend of mine works for an insurance claims company. The other day a slightly addled but very chirpy customer phoned in to claim for a Rolex. He'd left it with a taxi driver in New York while he went out to the cashpoint (ATM). Cost of the fare: $30; cost of the watch? $15,000. When asked if he had any proof of ownership, the man replied 'Buy the Rock In Rio DVD from a few years back, you can see me wearing it really clearly during 'Overkill!' The claimant was Phil Campbell from Motorhead." (thanks to Popbitch)

Fight for a Free Press
by Robert W. McChesney

" . . . The myth of the Internet is that it is a magic technology unaffected by policies. Not true. The genius of the Internet has been a series of policies and subsidies that nurtured it, especially "network neutrality," meaning all users and websites have had equal access to the Internet without discrimination by the Internet service providers. This is now under direct attack by the (government-created) cable and telephone monopolies, which want effectively to privatize control (in their hands) over who is allowed to have a website and who is not. You can learn about the battle to preserve network neutrality, to defend the genius of the Internet, at www.savetheinternet.com, the website of the coalition leading the fight to see that the First Amendment endures in the digital age. Freedom of the press is something we must continually fight for, or we stand to lose it. If we contest corrupt and secretive policy-making, if we draw citizens into the debate, as we have learned in recent years, we can and will win. It is why the media reform movement is exploding across the nation. . . " article

The Adventures of Keira Knightly's Jaw

Your Number One Keira Knightly's Jaw News Magazine SITE

(Note: From the same Dumbagraite who brought you Al-Zarqawi's Mom's Blog: SITE

Pentagon Lists Homosexuality as Disorder
By Lolita C. Baldor
The Associated Press

Washington - A Pentagon document classifies homosexuality as a mental disorder, decades after mental health experts abandoned that position. The document outlines retirement or other discharge policies for service members with physical disabilities, and in a section on defects lists homosexuality alongside mental retardation and personality disorders. Critics said the reference underscores the Pentagon's failing policies on gays, and adds to a culture that has created uncertainty and insecurity around the treatment of homosexual service members, leading to anti-gay harassment. Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Jeremy M. Martin said the policy document is under review. article

Psychiatry and disease mongering: Road Rage Disorder is latest spontaneously "discovered" disease

Disease mongering has reached a new level of ridiculousness with the widely-reported announcement that millions of American now have undiagnosed Road Rage Disorder, also sometimes called Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED). Desperate to scrounge up new diseases that can be treated with high-profit prescription drugs, Big Pharma and its disease-pushing sidekick, psychiatry, is now pulling diseases out of thin air, making them up as it goes along, and hoping enough impressionable consumers (and journalists) can be hoodwinked into thinking every fictitious disease is actually real.

Road Rage Disorder is merely the latest disease quackery drummed up by the pharmaceutical industry. article

They Walk Among Us.....

Dumbagra Winner No. 1: I live in a semi-rural area. We recently had a new neighbor call the local township administrative office to request the removal of the Deer Crossing sign on our road. The reason: "too many deer were being hit by cars" and he didn't want them to cross there anymore. This one was from Kingman, KS.

Dumbagra Winner No. 2: My daughter went to a local Taco Bell and ordered a taco. She asked the person behind the counter for "minimal lettuce." He said he was sorry, but they only had iceberg. And he was a Kansas City chef!

Dumbagra Winner No. 3: I was at the airport, checking in at the gate when an airport employee asked, "Has anyone put anything in your baggage without your knowledge? To which I replied, "If it was without my knowledge, how would I know? He smiled knowingly and nodded, "That's why we ask." Happened in Birmingham, Ala.

Dumbagra Winner No. 4: The stoplight on the corner buzzes when it's safe to cross the street. I was crossing with an intellectually challenged coworker of mine when she asked if I knew what the buzzer was for. I explained that it signals blind people when the light is red. Appalled, she responded, "What on earth are blind people doing driving?!" She was a probation officer in Wichita, KS

Dumbagra Winner No. 5: At a good-bye luncheon for an old and dear coworker who was leaving the company due to "downsizing," our manager commented cheerfully, " This is fun. We should do this more often." Not a word was spoken. We all just looked at each other with that deer-in-the-headlights stare. This was a bunch at Texas Instruments.

Dumbagra Winner No. 6: I work with an individual who plugged her power strip Back into itself and for the life of her couldn't understand why her system would not turn on. A deputy with the Dallas County Sheriff's office no less.

Dumbagra Winner No. 7: When my husband and I arrived at an automobile dealership to pick up our car, we were told the keys had been locked in it. We went to the service department and found a mechanic working feverishly to unlock the driver's side door. As I watched from the passenger side, I instinctively tried the door handle and discovered that it was unlocked. "Hey," I announced to the technician, "it's open!" To which he replied, "I know - I already got that side." This was at the Ford dealership in Canton, Mississippi!
(thanks to Bill Lempke)

Guard Returns to New Orleans, Spurred by Crime

" Do you have blacks, too?"
George W Bush to Brazilian president Fernando Cardoso, Washington DC Nov 8, 2001

June 20 - National Guard troops are patrolling the streets of New Orleans, returning to the city they helped stabilize nine months ago, after Hurricane Katrina struck. New Orleans Police Chief Warren Riley says his force can use the help, as the Guard patrols will free police to concentrate on areas of high crime. There have been 53 murders in New Orleans this year, including five teenagers who were shot to death in one incident this past weekend. Robert Siegel talks with New Orleans Times-Picayune reporter Trymaine Lee about the quintuple shooting that took place on Saturday in Jefferson Parrish. Lee says it seems as if gangs have returned to New Orleans. article

RECIPE

New Orleans Coquille St. Jacques

Ingredients
8-12 medium sea scallops (not the tiny bay scallops)
Creole seasoning (see below)
1 stick butter
1/2 cup white wine
1/4 cup flour
2 egg yolks
3 green onions, finely sliced
1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced into 3 cm pieces.
2 cups fish stock
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 Tsp. Tabasco
3 Tbs. grated Grana Padano or other parmesan cheese
3 Tbs. fresh bread crumbs

1. Slice the scallops crosswise. If they're very large, halve or quarter them from top to bottom as well. Sprinkle with Creole seasoning to your taste.
2. Heat half the butter over high heat in a heavy skillet, and sear the scallops for about a minute on each side. Remove the scallops and set aside.
3. Lower the heat to medium. Add the wine and bring it to a boil while whisking the pan to dissolve the browned bits from the scallops. Reduce the wine by half, then whisk in all but 1 Tbs. of the remaining butter. When it begins bubbling, whisk in the flour until blended completely. Add the egg yolks, the green onions and mushrooms, and cook until the onions are soft.
4. Stir in the fish stock, salt, and Tabasco and bring to a light boil. Add the scallops to the pan and cook until the sauce thickens.
5. Pour the pan contents into coquille shells or au gratin dishes. Top with a mixture of parmesan cheese and bread crumbs and a flake or two of the remaining butter. Bake on a pan in a preheated 350-degree oven until the top browns and the sauce bubbles. Serve hot. Don't burn your mouth.

Serves four.

Creole Seasoning

* 2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
* 2 tablespoons salt
* 2 tablespoons garlic powder
* 1 tablespoon onion powder
* 1 tablespoon black pepper
* 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
* 1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
* 1 tablespoon dried leaf thyme

DUMBAGRA THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Who was the first person to say, "See that chicken there? I'm gonna eat the next thing that comes outta its butt."