Word picture from Wordle.

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Wordle made this word picture of Ghost Town Orange's current home page. Click here to go to my gallery page at Wordle where you will also find several word pictures created from this chunk of text from Barack Obama's Audacity of Hope:

Any strategy to reduce intergenerational poverty has to be centered on work, not welfare--not only because work provides independence and income but also because work provides order, structure, dignity, and opportunities for growth in people's lives.

But we also need to admit that work alone does not ensure that people can rise out of poverty. Across America, welfare reform has sharply reduced the number of people on the public dole; it has also swelled the ranks of the working poor, with women churning in and out of the labor market, locked into jobs that don't pay a living wage, forced every day to scramble for adequate child care, affordable housing, and accessible health care, only to find themselves at the end of each month wondering how they can stretch the last few dollars that they have left to cover the food bill, the gas bill, and the baby's new coat.

--Barack Obama, Audacity of Hope, 2006

Obama vote for change radio ad transcript

This radio ad is playing frequently on a pop music station in Virginia:

Tim: My name is Tim. I registered to vote because I've never voted before.

Anthea: This is Anthea, and I went to voteforchange.com because the economy stinks.

Male voice: I'm registering because I want Social Security to be here when I retire.

Dominique: My name is Dominique, and I'm voting because I want to retire before I'm 90.

Male voice: I registered to vote because I only make 2 gallons of gas an out.

Female voice: I registered because the future won't run on oil.

Andy: This is Andy, and I'm voting to end the war.

James: My name is James, and I registered because when I need health care, I want to know that I can afford it.

Male voice: I went to voteforchange.com because it costs more to fill up my tank than my mom makes in a day.

Female voice: I went to voteforchange.com because we can't afford four more years.

Barack Obama: I'm Barack Obama, and I approve this message because, whatever your reason, you need to register in order to vote. Get everything that you need to register and vote at voteforchange.com .

Announcer: The deadline for registration is almost here. If you want to vote for change, you need to register now at voteforchange.com. That's voteforchange.com. Paid for by Obama for America.

At voteforchange.com, you can check your voter registration status, register to vote, request to vote absentee, and find your polling location.

For Virginia, the deadline for registering to vote for the November election is October 6th.
More info about voter registration in Virginia available from the Virginia State Board of Elections website.

Meanwhile, some folks are worrying about the lack of yard signs for Obama. If it's that important to you, make your own. But signs don't vote. People who are registered to vote do.

On the other hand, it would be nice to see more sign support for Obama in the more rural areas of this county, because there are plenty of Republican signs. People like to feel that they are not alone.

I am not suggesting that every progressive suddenly latch on to religious terminology or that we abandon the fight for institutional change in favor of "a thousand points of light." I recognize how often appeals to private virtue become excuses for inaction. Moreover, nothing is more transparent than inauthentic expressions of faith--such as the politician who shows up at a black church around election time and claps (off rhythm) to the gospel choir or sprinkles in a few biblical citations to spice up a thoroughly dry policy speech.
--Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope

Barack Obama, Racism, and Eliminationist Rhetoric

A letter to the editor in the September 17-23 issue of the North Fork Journal, Rockingham County, Virginia [no web presence]:

Recently, I and my wife noticed this sign in a field at Fulks Run. Painted over the Barack sign were the letters KKK.

My wife is from Puerto Rico (a U. S. territory) and has lived in central Florida for twelve years. She has seen the face of the KKK actively. She has also received death threats while running for local office. In nearby St. Cloud, a cafe was called the Koffee Kup Kafe.

The only head covering she expected to see here was that of the Mennonites, which would have been a good thing.

It is hard for our generation, in our community, to understand what those three letters mean. Ask an older person who is a minority, or anyone else who has really seen the face of hatred. Threats have been leveled at Barack, and by extension, his supporters. My wife is NOT the only minority in this community.

It is neither funny nor trivial. It is NOT what our community is about, and we need to stand against this hatred in the MOST VOCAL MANNER POSSIBLE! Our community needs to publicly stand against hatred and threats of violence! We need to organize and event to express this within our community.

Bruce Ritchie
Criders

Another recent letter in the Fort Worth Star Telegram notices the impact of racism on this election:

September 05, 2008
How racism works

What if John McCain were a former president of the Harvard Law Review? What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class? What if McCain were still married to the first woman he said "I do" to? What if Obama were the candidate who left his first wife after she no longer measured up to his standards?

What if Michelle Obama were a wife who not only became addicted to pain killers, but acquired them illegally through her charitable organization? What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard? What if Obama were a member of the "Keating 5"? What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?

This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.

— Kelvin LaFond, Fort Worth
Fort Worth Star Telegram (hat tip to Andrew Tobias)

[The last sentence kind of muddles up Mr. LaFond's message, but the point he's making is obvious.]

Jesus' General has a handy spinner to help racists who claim their opposition to Obama is not because he's black.

Go check out the opening segment of Bill Moyers Journal for September 12, 2008. Right-wing talk show hosts seething with eliminationist rhetoric aimed at liberals. [Audio mp3 here. (no idea if this is a permanent link)]

Go check out David Neiwert's series "Eliminationism in America": Parts I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX and X, and Appendix.

A recently opened exhibition for artist/illustrator Arthur Szyk [Bilder gegen Nationalsocialismus und Terror -- Deutsches Historisches Museum] has this pertinent image:

Vergib ihnen nicht, oh Herr, denn sie wissen, was sie tun!…
Do not forgive them, O Lord, for they do know what they do!
New Canaan, 1949

--'humble, earnest Christians' do not engage in armed rebellion against the government to protect chattel slavery...

I just installed a gadget in the sidebar which publishes "Christian Quotes Past and Present." The first quote is not particularly inspiring nor insightful--C. S. Lewis chimes in with this profound wisdom: 'wouldn't it be great if everyone was nice?':

Safety and happiness can only come from individuals, classes, and nations being honest and fair and kind to each other.

--C. S. Lewis

God our security,
who alone can defend us
against the principalities and powers
that rule this present age;
may we trust in no weapons
except the whole armor of faith,
that in dying we may live,
and, having nothing, we may own the world,
through Jesus Christ. AMEN
--Janet Morley, All desires known, 1988

Ron Rivera 1948-2008

Ron Rivera, (Coordinator of Ceramic Water Filter and International Projects, Potters for Peace; sociologist, potter and appropriate technology enthusiast) recently died.

William Grimes wrote the New York Times Obituary for Ron Rivera.

Ron Rivera liked to call his ceramic water filters “weapons of biological mass destruction [sic--Mr. Rivera's wording was "bacterial mass destruction"].” For 25 years he traveled to poor villages throughout Latin America, Africa and Asia teaching local potters to make what appears to be a big terra-cotta flower pot but is in fact an ingenious device for purifying water.

Sawdust or ricestraw fibers in the clay used in molding the pots burns during firing, leaving many fine pores which allow water to pass through but not bacteria.

Gray water to clean water


Gray water enters the filter at the top; Clean water collects in a larger pot and is dispensed through a spigot at the bottom

These images were taken from a video hosted at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum - Design for the Other 90% website.

Molding a ceramic water filter pot in a press


Out of the mold


Filters stacked in a kiln for firing


The final product: the filter sits inside a larger pot that collects the clean water ready for drinking, cooking and washing

More about Ron Rivera:

• Ron Rivera's Profile at Changemakers
• Ron Rivera Memorial page at Potters For Peace
• Ron Rivera Memorial blog at Potters Without Borders

My favorite water development group is Water Partners International.

"Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral" --Paulo Freire

I desired the ability to list post labels

So I changed to a totally different template. I think I have brought over all needful content from the old template. I started searching for posts with common key-words and adding appropriate labels.

Good evening.

At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life. -- Justice Anthony Kennedy.

This quote earned Justice Kennedy the condemnation of Focus on the Family

Today's updates

• I restored and added a few blogs etc. to the "other favorites" section of the sidebar
• Paul Krugman and Stanley Fish were added to the "favorite columnists"
• Strunk's Elements of Style Revised by John Cowan added to 'reference links'
• Sitemeter was unavailable over the weekend--so I added code for StatCounter just in case Sitemeter stops working. Sitemeter reports 5015 visitors since October 5, 2003.

Things I may do...

• Go look at the monthly archive and check for linkrot.
  
• Insert linkrot image for bad links.
  
• Edit old posts to add labels
• Delete pointless posts...
  
• Add a 'labels' section to the sidebar so Ghost Town Orange can work a little more like a filing cabinet. Now it is more like a diary ...
  
• Posts ... 'on this day in Ghost Town Orange history'...
  

God our security,
who alone can defend us
against the principalities and powers
that rule this present age;
may we trust in no weapons
except the whole armor of faith,
that in dying we may live,
and, having nothing, we may own the world,
through Jesus Christ. AMEN
--Janet Morley, All desires known, 1988

Bush Years Illustrated

Click for larger image
Small print at the bottom of the poster reads:

4/08 - 81% of the people said that the country was on the wrong track and G. W. Bush's approval rating -28%

Vote John McCain - Get More of the Same!

found at boing boing

Links may fail without warning. Since we rarely test links for reliability and since many links eventually rot, we urge readers who see an item worth keeping to save it while the link is still valid.

We recommend the Zotero add-on for the Firefox browser for this purpose.

Presidential Election

No astounding prediction this year. Remember that the Presidential Election is won in the Electoral College, so national polls are meaningless. Of course I'll support the Democratic Party as usual.

Here's a good website to track state-by-state polls: FiveThirtyEight.Com.

"Christianity has become bloated with blind followers who would rather repeat slogans than actually feel true compassion and care. Christianity has become marketed and streamlined with a juggernaut of fearmongering that has lost its own heart."
--a young person's opinion of Christians, from UnChristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons

Last template fix for today

I have yet to update the 'Other Favorites' and "Stamp Collecting Links'--more updates to come!

I deleted the Ghost Town Orange Weather service and upcoming news service although the original posts they link to are still there...maybe I'll update it with my current location...

More columnists have been added to the favorite columnist list. I suppose I could add Paul Krugman and Stanley Fish from the New York Times...

I really need to update the picture at the top...

Peace

The technical imperfections occasionally seen in these posts are original flaws inherent given human fallibility. They are presented for their historic value and should be judged in that context. Loose threads and fraying seams are evidence of this handcrafted blog's extreme high quality.

Template changes in process

The Terror Banana has been deleted from the template...

Christian Links and Reference links have been checked and updated.

New link: Diacritic Decoration changed 'Ghost Town Orange' to 'Ǵh̉ờśŧŦóẃñỢŕåņg̣è'

"Most people I meet assume that Christian means very conservative, entrenched in their thinking, antigay, antichoice, angry, violent, illogical, empire builders; they want to convert everyone, and they generally cannot live peacefully with anyone who doesn't believe what they believe."
--from UnChristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, a book presenting the opinions of many young people in the United States about the church. Apparently Christians are more known for what we oppose than who we are for...

Dusting out the cobwebs

I finally figured out how to change this blog over to my Google account. The last time I tried to post anything at the 'new blogger' my computer locked up...

The Terror Banana is gone.

I will check some of the links and update the template soon.

There has been an unusual spike in activity at Ghost Town Orange:




















The last 100 visitors to Ghost Town Orange appear on this map:

God our security,
who alone can defend us
against the principalities and powers
that rule this present age;
may we trust in no weapons
except the whole armor of faith,
that in dying we may live,
and, having nothing, we may own the world,
through Jesus Christ. AMEN
--Janet Morley, All desires known, 1988