Such wonderful wonderful news.  And lovely art.  Happy thread, happy day, happy life.

Karen in Austin

Thence comes our true nobility by grace, It was not willed us with our rank and place. Chaucer

That's great news, I'm really pleased.  

I love the picture - it's a shame that bird pictures become so standardised when children get older, this version is so much more original.

Ad astra per aspera

Congratulations and hugs to the family, Jerome!  It makes my day, too.

Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. --Charu Saxena.

That's just great news, Jérôme! That bluebird's a magician!

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind

Merveilleuse nouvelle. Je suis très heureux pour toi et ta famille.

"Ne te courbe que pour aimer..." René Char

Brilliant news. I a so happy for you and your family

keep to the Fen Causeway

Excellent news.


Life should consist in at least fifty percent pure waste of time, and the rest doing what you please.

Just last night we were wondering how that was going. Congratulations, you must be very relieved.

"It's the statue, man, The Statue."

Wonderful! Congratulations!

Omoyele Sowore

http://globalexchange.org/getInvolved/speakers/134.html

"His activism began in 1989, when he took part in student demonstrations protesting the conditions of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan of $120 million to be used for a Nigerian oil pipeline -- the IMF loan conditions were to reduce the number of universities in the country from 28 to just 5.
...
Currently abroad being treated for the effects of torture, Sowore is adamant he'll return to Nigeria. "Change will not come to Nigeria on a platter of gold," he insists. "If you want justice, you have to fight for it."
"

Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. --Charu Saxena.

Thanks for sharing - this is wonderful news Jérôme!

Excellent news and excellent picture!
Keep smiling!

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. Oscar Wilde

Congratulations. :)

You must be so glad it's all over.

Breaking news:

During his entire career as PM, Swedish former PM Göran Persson (1996-2007) was regularly interviewed by the journalist Eric Fichtelius, who has made it all into a 4 hour documentary. Persson is extremely frank as the show was promised to be aired only after his retirement as PM.

The first part of four was aired tonight and I just watched it. The funniest thing from a European presepective is what he says about the day when the EMU treaty was signed.

Everyone was worried as Kohl, Chirac, Blair and Duisenberg where gone. So everyone figured they were up to something. Suddenly, Kohl storms in looking totally crushed and pissed off. He is black around the eyes and sits down with Persson and some more people, starting to moan about being tricked by Chirac and Blair, and that he gave them too much, and that his entire next election is spoilt. His translator sobs while she translates.

Suddenly Kohl orders in a saucer. He takes at least ten of those tiny enclosed butter boxes and empty all of them on the saucer. And then he eats all the butter, extremely fast. And then he orders in another saucer of butter. While he eats it he relaxes and seems to resign himself with his fate.

I am looking forward to the bext episode where they'll cover Perssons visit to North Korea! :D

Other interesting if more domestic things: calls former rightwing PM and current foreign minister "such a fucking idiot" and says that new socialist chairman Mona Sahlin's "greatest strength is not thinking". Also covered how he repeatadly pisses off his minister of social affairs and later EU commisioner, Margot Wallström.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

Excellent. Soon you'll only need fear the tooth fairy ...

Good news!

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.

Okay, in 6 weeks my free laptop and internet access will be summarily removed by my ex-employer. Currently I'm on XP.

Question : I've only ever used microsoft products before but should I switch to Mac or Unix  ? I'm very paranoid about virii, and other nasties burrowing into my hard disk so staying away from microsoft vulnerabilities is tempting, but what am I letting myself in for with the others. I'm an old DOS hand so unix command lines don't intimidate.

Once we decide on OS, what applications do I need ? I only use email and word processing and will probably need accountancy programmes.

Advice from the gurus please ?

keep to the Fen Causeway

I'm thrilled to hear it, Jerome.  Congrats!

Where's your motherf*%&ing flag pin?

Isn't life ...just... beautiful ?

Ga. Senate Panel OKs Confederate Month
A panel of Georgia lawmakers signed off Thursday on a plan to create a Confederate heritage month, even as legislative leaders reacted coolly to a push to apologize for the state's role in slavery.

Sen. Jeff Mullis' bill would dub April as Confederate History and Heritage Month to honor the memory of the Confederacy and ''all those millions of its citizens of various races and ethnic groups and religions who contributed in sundry and myriad ways to the cause of Southern Independence.''

The unanimous vote by the Senate Rules committee -- which sent the plan on to the full Senate for consideration -- comes days after black lawmakers announced plans to ask the state to officially apologize for its role in slavery and segregation-era laws.

[...]

Cornerstone Speech by CSA Vice President, Alexander Stephens of Georgia, March 1961

This new constitution. or form of government, constitutes the subject to which your attention will be partly invited. In reference to it, I make this first general remark: it amply secures all our ancient rights, franchises, and liberties. All the great principles of Magna Charta are retained in it. No citizen is deprived of life, liberty, or property, but by the judgment of his peers under the laws of the land. The great principle of religious liberty, which was the honor and pride of the old constitution, is still maintained and secured. All the essentials of the old constitution, which have endeared it to the hearts of the American people, have been preserved and perpetuated. Some changes have been made. Some of these I should have preferred not to have seen made; but other important changes do meet my cordial approbation. They form great improvements upon the old constitution. So, taking the whole new constitution, I have no hesitancy in giving it as my judgment that it is decidedly better than the old.

[...]

But not to be tedious in enumerating the numerous changes for the better, allow me to allude to one other --though last, not least. The new constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution--African slavery as it exists amongst us--the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. Jefferson in his forecast, had anticipated this, as the "rock upon which the old Union would split." He was right. What was conjecture with him, is now a realized fact. But whether he fully comprehended the great truth upon which that rock stood and stands, may be doubted. The prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old constitution, were that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with, but the general opinion of the men of that day was that, somehow or other in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent and pass away. This idea, though not incorporated in the constitution, was the prevailing idea at that time. The constitution, it is true, secured every essential guarantee to the institution while it should last, and hence no argument can be justly urged against the constitutional guarantees thus secured, because of the common sentiment of the day. Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the government built upon it fell when the "storm came and the wind blew."

Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery--subordination to the superior race--is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.

[...]

It is the first government ever instituted upon the principles in strict conformity to nature, and the ordination of Providence, in furnishing the materials of human society. Many governments have been founded upon the principle of the subordination and serfdom of certain classes of the same race; such were and are in violation of the laws of nature. Our system commits no such violation of nature's laws. With us, all of the white race, however high or low, rich or poor, are equal in the eye of the law. Not so with the negro. Subordination is his place. He, by nature, or by the curse against Canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our system. The architect, in the construction of buildings, lays the foundation with the proper material-the granite; then comes the brick or the marble. The substratum of our society is made of the material fitted by nature for it, and by experience we know that it is best, not only for the superior, but for the inferior race, that it should be so. It is, indeed, in conformity with the ordinance of the Creator. It is not for us to inquire into the wisdom of His ordinances, or to question them. For His own purposes, He has made one race to differ from another, as He has made "one star to differ from another star in glory." The great objects of humanity are best attained when there is conformity to His laws and decrees, in the formation of governments as well as in all things else. Our confederacy is founded upon principles in strict conformity with these laws. This stone which was rejected by the first builders "is become the chief of the corner"--the real "corner-stone"--in our new edifice. I have been asked, what of the future? It has been apprehended by some that we would have arrayed against us the civilized world. I care not who or how many they may be against us, when we stand upon the eternal principles of truth, if we are true to ourselves and the principles for which we contend, we are obliged to, and must triumph.

[...]

Congratulations!

Och nu den svenska kocken bakar en Alaskan älg jägare. Bonk! Bonk! Bonk!

who says christmas comes only once a year?

breathe easier, jerome...

felicitations!

Peace is not the absence of war -- peace is the absence of fear. Ursula Franklin

Congratulations on the good news, Jerome!

While we are into the graphical creations of the smaller, less cynical members of our species, here is a link to drawings by russian school children of president Putin:

http://community.livejournal.com/ru_marazm/609062.html?page=1

My favourite is the last picture, althought it is probably drawn by someone older than the others. Does anyone know what the text says in it?

Happy news indeed!

I am overjoyed at your news Jerome!  Finally, something to cheer about.  

I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell. _ Blood Sweat & Tears

This is joke:

There was a survey around the world with one question:
What is your opinion about food shortages in rest of the world?

Survey ended catastrophically.

-In Africa they didn't know what the word FOOD means.

-In Western Europe they didn't know what word SHORTAGE means.

-In Eastern Europe they didn't know what a word (own) OPINON means.

-In USA they didn't know what word REST OF THE WORLD means.

Oh I just now actually had time to read your post Jerome. That is fantastic news! I hope you and your family will find peace in your souls and minds again...
I hope we all will find it with in our lives too. God bless!

Was actually wondering last week how things were.

Fantastic news, for your son, for you and for your whole family. Happy, indeed.

Congratulations and continued best wishes to you and your family, Jerome!!

Half the population is under the age of 18. Tanzania's future is NOW...join the 50% campaign!

Oh my God! What happened to "HAPPY open Thread"???
I can relate with Lana! I am not that much different in expressing my feelings toward world of today, ha-ha...I am angry about everything, past and future (if we have it as a kind)...I am furious cause people can easily "see grain in other people's eye and can't see a log in their eye"...I am sick when I see what shit they are feeding people through even not very skillfully wrapped propaganda in western world. I am totally confused about what is happening in "ex-Eastern world" at the moment and I tend to call it total chaos. ME is pure hell no matter how they wrap it. I am not going to even mention rest of the world...
All though we should be able to talk about it in civilized manner it's not surprise if sometimes we can't and we just lose it.
There is a lot of animosity out there because of the past and past is a huge baggage to care to the future...We can't just left it by the road. I wish we could...