# Dark Bilious Vapors

But how could I deny that I possess these hands and this body, and withal escape being classed with persons in a state of insanity, whose brains are so disordered and clouded by dark bilious vapors....
--Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy: Meditation I

## Tuesday, August 2, 2005

## Might have Made a BIG mistake…

…Showing this article -- Furby has `evolved,' but it still won't help clean your room -- to my daughter, Cory.

> ”Remember Furby? You may have gotten one for Christmas in 1998, when the first bird-beaked, big-eared creatures were introduced.
> They were cute in a creepy way, and became a big hit--more than 40 million were sold. The toy was discontinued in 2000, but loads of Web pages devoted to Furby sprung up, including numerous hacking sites, and even a Furby plastic surgery site.
> Now Furby is back, and it has "evolved." Bigger, and with six times the memory, Furby also is more lively, thanks to advanced voice recognition and new robotic technology Hasbro calls Emototronics. …”

Now, I’m going to have to search through endless toy bins in the crawl space to find one of these techno-critters for her to play with. And Yipes…these things NEVER shut UP.
[And as a funny aside, scared the crap out of our movers when they picked up a packed box and it began “Singing” in furbish!!! LOL]
Now, you tell me whether the Furby doesn’t look like My Chinchilla- Chin-Ho.
Furby
Chin-Ho, The Chinchilla
See a resemblance??? :-)
Karen on 08.02.05 @ 11:38 AM CST [link]
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## Inaccurate Silly Quizilla Type Thing:

A Star Trek Personality Test:
Take the Star Trek Quiz
No, I'm not Quark. Not by a long shot. I'm Reg Barclay if I'm any Star Trek character, but Reg wasn't even a result in this one.
Someone screwed up baaaaaaad.
Credit: Chris Lawrence at Signifying Nothing
Len on 08.02.05 @ 08:20 AM CST [link]
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## Yep. That's what we're looking at.

Over at Fanatical Apathy, Adam Felber gives us a peek at The Bolton Diaries, Week 1:

> August 3, 2005
> Not a lot happened today. A little staff meeting in the morning to “share our feelings” about yesterday’s dust-up. Several underlings expressed their wish for a supportive, productive work environment. I then expressed my desire to cram a cantilevered desk lamp up each and every one of their asses. I think we found some common ground there (lol!).
> Afterwards there was a “Security Council” meeting. Translation: The same pricks who were too busy picking out new panties for their boyfriends to get with the program on the Iraq thing wanted to get together to “rap” about the War on Terror. I waited until they’d gabbled in frog-talk for 20 minutes ( nobody’s going to make me wear those stupid earphones), and then I stood on the table and said, “Oooh, your opinions are sooooo valuable to me and the United States! Wait, let me take that down! No, wait, I have a better idea - let me share this.”
> Then I “dropped trou,” took a dump on the desk and walked out. Oh yes, yes I did. Left ‘em with something a little more relevant to think about. Ah, diplomacy. ;-)
> August 4, 2005
> I fucking hate this place.

Credit: Tom at Pretty War
Len on 08.02.05 @ 07:29 AM CST [link]
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## Just When Ya thought The waters was Safe...

....Comes this Fish poisoning Story [from last week, I KNOW, but I've been BiZeE!!! :-) ] from the Daily Herald:

> "Fish poisoning sickens 5 people:
> Grouper with buildup of naturally occurring toxin was consumed at Kane County restaurant
> …
> Ciguatera poisoning is an illness caused by eating fish that contain toxins produced by marine microalgae called Gambierdiscus toxicus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
> About 30 cases of ciguatera poisoning get reported each year, CDC statistics show, though health care providers are not required to report the illness, so the actual number of cases could be higher.
> The illness can lead to severe headaches, nausea, vomiting and neurological symptoms causing tingling, numbness or temperature reversal in the mouth, where cold feels hot and hot feels cold.
> This type of fish poisoning has no cure except for treatment of specific symptoms.
> ….
> “There is no culpability of the restaurant with this type of issue,” Gross said.
> Ciguatera poisoning occurs mostly from the consumption of barracuda, grouper, snapper, jacks, mackerel and triggerfish, the CDC said, particularly with fish caught on reefs in the Caribbean, and near Florida and Hawaii.
> Overall, cases of toxic seafood poisonings are more common in the summer because the algae grows better in warmer months.
> Health officials said the poisoning is rarely fatal and symptoms usually clear up in one to four weeks.

Yikes. Tho' I enjoy seafood -- Grouper, Snapper and these other fish will be off my list till this HOT Summer weather is Over and Gone. No need to push it with Toxic fish algae gowing in these extreme conditions. I'll wait for cooler conditions. :-)
Update: There are also additional articles about dead fish, birds and marine mammals increasing along the Pacific Coastal waters: Effects of global warming?

> "Marine biologists are seeing mysterious and disturbing things along the Pacific Coast this year: higher water temperatures, plummeting catches of fish, lots of dead birds on the beaches, and perhaps most worrisome, very little plankton — the tiny organisms that are a vital link in the ocean food chain.
> Is this just one freak year? Or is this global warming?
> ....
> Scientists say things could very well swing back to normal next year. But if the phenomenon proves to be long-lasting, the consequences could be serious for birds, fish and other wildlife.
> This much is known: From California to British Columbia, unusual weather patterns have disrupted the marine ecosystem.

Karen on 08.02.05 @ 07:12 AM CST [link]
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## More about Ice Cream...

I posted about "National Ice Cream Day" [July 16th]- Another FAB Faux Holiday.
Well, an Ice Cream Sandwich sounds pretty good, Len. But ya can't beat Homemade Ice Cream in this piece from "American Profile" and a little Ice Cream History too:

> "....In George Washington’s day, ice cream was made by what was called the “still pot” method. Milk, cream and sugar were put in a pewter bowl, and the bowl was set in a larger pot that was surrounded by ice and salt. It was stirred occasionally and took about four hours to harden. In the 18th century, ice and sugar were scarce and expensive.
> “So ice cream was a food that was not enjoyed too often by too many,” says Ed Marks, an ice cream historian in Lititz, Pa. (pop. 9,029).
> In 1843, Nancy Johnson invented and patented the first hand-cranked ice cream freezer. The machine reduced freezing time significantly, from several hours to about 20 minutes.
> “Suddenly, there was all kinds of (hand-cranked) freezer competition and a proliferation of stores selling ice cream,” Marks says. “But basically, it was a retail business. You made it there and sold it there.”
> The process of making ice cream has changed greatly since the days of the hand-cranked freezer. Nowadays, a small ice cream shop can mix up 40-quart batches, while commercial manufacturers use a “continuous-freezer process” that can make several thousand gallons of ice cream a day with one freezer.
> Significant Dates in Ice Cream History
> 1843—Nancy Johnson invents and patents the hand-cranked ice cream freezer.
> 1851—Jacob Fussell of Baltimore opens the world’s first wholesale ice cream factory.
> 1878—William Clewell of Reading, Pa., invents the first ice cream dipper. Before that ice cream was not dipped or scooped, but spooned.
> 1892—Chester Platt, owner of Platt & Colt’s Pharmacy in Ithaca, N.Y., pours cherry syrup over vanilla ice cream for a customer, who names the creation a Cherry Sunday, for the day on which it was served.
> 1896—New York City street vendor Italo Marchiony creates the ice cream cone and has it patented.
> 1904—Pharmacist David Strickler creates the first banana split in Latrobe, Pa.
> 1905—Walkers Ice Cream in Warren, Pa., discovers how to use an ammonia brine to operate its freezer, eliminating the need for ice.
> 1919—Prohibition arrives and beer makers become ice cream makers. Their advertising dollars promote American interest in ice cream."

And there is also a recipe for making Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream!! Yummy. :-)
[Tho' I suggest an Electric powered Ice Cream Maker, unless ya have Lots of Hands to turn that Crank.]
Karen on 08.02.05 @ 06:54 AM CST [link]
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## More Faux Holidays....

My sources (the same sources that informed me that yesteday was Girlfriends' Day) now inform me that here in the U.S. today is National Ice Cream Sandwich Day, or National "Pretty Is As Pretty Does" Day. So take your pick.
I suppose that I'll have an ice cream sandwich to celebrate.
Len on 08.02.05 @ 06:39 AM CST [link]
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## More Falafel falls from the Mouth of “Loofah Man”

David Corn has this interesting Tid-Bit (and transcript) about getting dissed by Bill Loofah Man O’Reilly.
Loofah, it seems, can’t manage his No-Spin Zone anymore without drooling, slobbering and outright sliming anything and anyone with personal attack references:

> ”… David Corn is so beneath what we do here, it's a waste of my time. Number two, no one knows who he is. Number three, he's an irrational leftwing bomber that why would I bother with him? I'm not going to take a call like that. We want to take good calls, the calls that people can identify with. You know, why don't I challenge all of these slimy, sewer dwellers? I don't have time to do it. You know, we got a lot of stuff to do here on The Factor. We got a lot of causes that we're involved with that mean something. I'm not going to go after these idiots. I mean they're just, you know, beneath contempt….”

And WHO Listens to this SHIT from the Not-News-Fox-Network????
Given his penchant for “talking dirty” it sounds like it’s SHOWER TIME for Mr. Loofah (and perhaps a bar’o’soap for his filthy mouth too…long overdue.)
Karen on 08.02.05 @ 05:58 AM CST [link]
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## Thought for the Day:

Everybody seems to have agreed to tiptoe around the report that Judge John G. Roberts said he would recuse himself in a case where the law required a ruling that the Catholic Church might consider immoral. According to Jonathan Turley, a professor of law at George Washington University, the judge gave this answer in a private meeting with Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., who is the Senate minority whip. Durbin told Turley that when asked the question, Roberts looked taken aback and paused for a long time before giving his reply.
Attempts have been made to challenge Turley's version, and Sen. Durbin (who was himself unfairly misquoted recently as having made a direct comparison between Guantanamo, Hitler, and Stalin when he had only mentioned them in the same breath) probably doesn't need any more grief. But how probable is it that the story is wrong? A clever conservative friend writes to me that obviously Roberts, who is famed for his unflappability, cannot have committed such a bêtise. For one thing, he was being faced with a question that he must have known he would be asked. Yes, but that's exactly what gives the report its ring of truth. If Roberts had simply said that the law and the Constitution would control in all cases (the only possible answer), then there would have been no smoke. If he had said that the Vatican would decide, there would have been a great deal of smoke. But who could have invented the long pause and the evasive answer? I think there is a gleam of fire here. At the very least, Roberts should be asked the same question again, under oath, at his confirmation.
It is already being insinuated, by those who want this thorny question de-thorned, that there is an element of discrimination involved. Why should this question be asked only of Catholics? Well, that's easy. The Roman Catholic Church claims the right to legislate on morals for all its members and to excommunicate them if they don't conform. The church is also a foreign state, which has diplomatic relations with Washington. In the very recent past, this church and this state gave asylum to Cardinal Bernard Law, who should have been indicted for his role in the systematic rape and torture of thousands of American children. (Not that child abuse is condemned in the Ten Commandments, any more than slavery or genocide or rape.) More recently still, the newly installed Pope Benedict XVI (who will always be Ratzinger to me) has ruled that Catholic politicians who endorse the right to abortion should be denied the sacraments: no light matter for believers of the sincerity that Judge Roberts and his wife are said to exhibit. And just last month, one of Ratzinger's closest allies, Cardinal Schonborn of Vienna, wrote an essay in which he announced that evolution was "ideology, not science."
Thus, quite apart from the scandalous obstruction of American justice in which the church took part in the matter of Cardinal Law, we have increasingly firm papal dogmas on two issues that are bound to come before the court: abortion and the teaching of Darwin in schools. So, please do not accuse me of suggesting a "dual loyalty" among American Catholics. It is their own church, and its conduct and its teachings, that raise this question.
--Christopher Hitchens
Len on 08.02.05 @ 05:00 AM CST [link]
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## Monday, August 1, 2005

## Breaking baseball news....

Rafael Palmiero of the Baltimore Orioles has been suspended for 10 days for violation of the MLB banned substances policy. Just about every source for the story that I've seen has stated that the suspension is for testing positive for steroids. Given that the MLB banned substance policy, unlike that of the minor leagues, is quite narrow (in MLB only steroids and recognized "drugs of abuse" such as cocaine and heroin are banned), and given that Palmiero isn't issuing indignant statements saying that he tested positive for one of those drugs of abuse ("It's cocaine!!!" "I was shooting up smack!!!!" "I was doing crack with a whore!!!!"), the odds are it's probably steroids that he got fingered for.
By happy coincidence, Baseball Prospectus is in the middle of their "Free Preview" week, so if you're interested you can read Will Carroll's quite informative "UTK Special" on the Palmiero case for free until Wednesday ("UTK" stands for "Under the Knife", Carroll's "medhead" Baseball Prospectus column about injuries and other medically oriented baseball news).
Len on 08.01.05 @ 06:19 PM CST [link]
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## Posh Pads (Really Posh...)

And for a few places I Won’t be Buying and/or living in soon - Forbes has generated this list of Most Expensive Homes:

> ” The most expensive homes in the world are, for the most part, pretty much what you would expect: opulent, private and capable of making the neighbors sick with jealousy. What is surprising, however, is that in some parts of the world, they can be relatively modest, and even a bargain. …”
> Oh, Right-O. After I make me first Billion or so…I’ll just have to get on the Realtor’s list of upcoming clients. Ha, ha, ha!!!
> :-)
> Pictures of these Bargains can be found at this link: Courtesy of AOL.
> Karen on 08.01.05 @ 05:07 PM CST [link]
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## Been a Loooong Day So far...

And this is just about HOW I woke up this morning too - Brought to you by Engrish.
And Yep... It is time to Occur - And it's been a good day in the Waiting for Me.
:-)
Karen on 08.01.05 @ 04:59 PM CST [link]
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## Willfully Wasting Wifi??

Now here is one that I can really see eye to eye with on a purely intellectual level about whether - by allowing your home Wifi to be broadcast unencrypted into the public realm or street, you ought to be “allowed” to then make a claim against anyone who might be tempted to use IT -- OR this claim that You simply Can't Steal Wifi:

> Like many in the tech community, I found it rather disturbing that someone could be arrested, and then charged with stealing a WiFi signal.
> …..
> If you decide to water your lawn and turn on your sprinkler, and the run-off travels across the sidewalk, off of your property, and enters the drain, and then I come along and start to collect that water and put it into a bucket, you can't convict me for stealing your water. I never entered your property, never took a step onto your lawn, I simply never trespassed.
> WiFi works the same. If you have a wireless connection in your home, and that connection spills over onto the street, how is that any different? While the signal, like the water, originated from your property, it has also left the property and entered into public property. In fact, I could say that when your signal leaves your house and enters my house, you are trespassing. So why not start arresting homeowners with WiFi?…”

Seem to be lots of Geeky Passion on both sides of this issue too. [See the comment section of this post.]
Courtesy of Digg.Com
Karen on 08.01.05 @ 04:52 PM CST [link]
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## Ex-Gitmo prosecutors: "Military Commissions are rigged."

From ABC News--the Australian one, not the U.S.one: Leaked emails claim Guantanamo trials rigged

> Leaked emails from two former prosecutors claim the military commissions set up to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay are rigged, fraudulent, and thin on evidence against the accused.
> Two emails, which have been obtained by the ABC, were sent to supervisors in the Office of Military Commissions in March of last year - three months before Australian detainee David Hicks was charged and five months before his trial began.
> The first email is from prosecutor Major Robert Preston to his supervisor.
> Maj Preston writes that the process is perpetrating a fraud on the American people, and that the cases being pursued are marginal.
> "I consider the insistence on pressing ahead with cases that would be marginal even if properly prepared to be a severe threat to the reputation of the military justice system and even a fraud on the American people," Maj Preston wrote.
> "Surely they don't expect that this fairly half-arsed effort is all that we have been able to put together after all this time."
> Maj Preston says he cannot continue to work on a process he considers morally, ethically and professionally intolerable.
> "I lie awake worrying about this every night," he wrote.
> "I find it almost impossible to focus on my part of mission.
> "After all, writing a motion saying that the process will be full and fair when you don't really believe it is kind of hard, particularly when you want to call yourself an officer and lawyer."
> Maj Preston was transferred out of the Office of Military Commissions less than a month later.
> The second email is written by another prosecutor, Captain John Carr, who also ended up leaving the department.
> Capt Carr says the commissions appear to be rigged.
> "When I volunteered to assist with this process and was assigned to this office, I expected there would at least be a minimal effort to establish a fair process and diligently prepare cases against significant accused," he wrote.
> "Instead, I find a half-hearted and disorganised effort by a skeleton group of relatively inexperienced attorneys to prosecute fairly low-level accused in a process that appears to be rigged."
> Capt Carr says that the prosecutors have been told by the chief prosecutor that the panel sitting in judgment on the cases would be handpicked to ensure convictions.
> "You have repeatedly said to the office that the military panel will be handpicked and will not acquit these detainees and that we only needed to worry about building a record for the review panel," he said.

Kudos to MAJ Preston and CPT Carr for putting what's right over careerism.
Len on 08.01.05 @ 12:01 PM CST [link]
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## New blogroll addition

Dr. Abby's Dr. Dad (who most totally rocks) has just launched a new group blog, 3 Old Men. Apparently Dr. Dad's already got a couple posts up, and they look good. Go give him some love and encouragement, now!
Len on 08.01.05 @ 09:57 AM CST [link]
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## Bush give world "the finger" again; in other news, dog bites man....

Reuters informs us that this morning President Bush gave the U.S. Senate and the rest of the world a hearty "fuck you" by giving "Revoltin' John Bolton" (™ and © MadKane) his expected recess appointment to be U.N. Ambassador.
The silver lining to this dark cloud: Bolton's going to be so ineffective that it'll be fun watching him fuck up. There's simply no way he can be effective at this post, but his ineffectiveness will be so entertaining it'll be worth the price of admission.
Len on 08.01.05 @ 09:39 AM CST [link]
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## From the "So True It May Not Be Funny..." department

From today's Ironic Times:

> Congress OKs Far-Reaching Energy Bill
> Reaches far into your wallet for big oil companies.

Len on 08.01.05 @ 08:33 AM CST [link]
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## Faux Holiday today?

My sources tell me that it's Girlfriend's Day in the U.S.. I don't know if I buy that; it's the first I've ever heard of it, not to mention that Hallmark doesn't seem to be inundating us with ads for "Girlfriend's Day" cards.
On the other hand, I'm surprised that Hallmark hasn't started marketing "Girlfriend's Day" yet; that seems to be about the only neo-Valentine's Day "supplement" they haven't come up with yet...
Len on 08.01.05 @ 08:05 AM CST [link]
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## Thought for the Day:

You don't need to be a Kraftwerk fan to know that Germans are as famous for their precision-engineered electronic music as they are for their automobiles.
--Philip Sherburne
Len on 08.01.05 @ 06:46 AM CST [link]
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## Sunday, July 31, 2005

## Listening to the Cards-Dodgers game on XM Radio this afternoon....

Since the game is in LA, XM is picking up the Dodgers' radio feed. That means I'm hearing Vin Scully call the game. For the first three innings, at least.
And Vin is referring to Cardinals 2B Mark Grudzielanek as "Grassolanek" (or at least that's what it sounds like). [Granting, this isn't as bad as the time that Harry Caray kept referring to then Cardinals catcher Tom Pagnozzi as "Tom Paggliozzi", but in Harry's defense, he'd just come back to the Cubs broadcast booth after his stroke, and I was (and still am) inclined to cut Harry a lot of slack for that reason.]
Vin, if you weren't a living legend I'd have to give you a whole ration o'shit.
But I've got to give Vin credit. On the same play he referred to Grudz by that bastardized neologism, he was admiring the defensive acumen of the Cards in general and right fielder John Rodriguez in particular (on a play where the Dodgers had two men in scoring position and should have, by all rights, scored two runs, Rodriguez both played the ball perfectly and hit the cut-off man to hold the Dodgers to only one run). And then, on the next play, in which Cards left fielder John Gall had a part, Scully actually made reference to that favorite passage of us high school Latinists: "Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres."
Any baseball play-by-play man who can pull a reference to Caesar's Commentarii De Bello Gallico into his broadcast is definitely deserving of enshrinement in Cooperstown.
I stand in awe.
Len on 07.31.05 @ 04:09 PM CST [link]
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## autoegocrat and The River City Mud Company are back....

after a brief hiatus, with a very good post on why the ever-more-likely "Revoltin'" John Bolton recess appointment as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations should worry you. [Note: "Revoltin' John Bolton" ™ and © MadKane]
Note that autoegocrat mentions, towards the end of that post, some news that I'm hearing more and more: that the U.S. has contingency plans in place for a nuclear first-strike against Iran.
Go back and re-read that bolded phrase. I'll wait for you.
I don't know if that bothers you, but I know it sure scares the shit out of me.
Be afraid, be very afraid.
Len on 07.31.05 @ 01:25 PM CST [link]
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## From the "Why this Fading Republic will Perish--sooner than you think" Department:

Josh Marshall passes on some news about the Ohio 2nd Congressional District special election:

> I haven't written on this. But there's a congressional candidate named Paul Hackett, a Marine corps vet of this Iraq war, who's is in a harsh, down and dirty race in Ohio's 2nd District and in the midst of getting the worst slime treatment you can imagine from the Republican machine.
> By the end of it, his volunteering to serve in the war zone will probably be cast as a sign of some deep character flaw or softness on terrorism. [emphasis supplied --LRC]

That's why we call them Rethugnicans.
But you may remember that there are other sins that Hackett has committed that have aroused the ire of the Rethugs. First, This Humble Blog recently picked up on a gem of his that I'm going to reprint here, Just Because I Can:

> The only way I know how to support the troops is by going over there. All the chicken hawks back here who said, "Oh, Iraq is talking bad about us. They're going to threaten us" - look, if you really believe that, you leave your wife and three kids and go sign up for the Army or Marines and go over there and fight. Otherwise, shut your mouth.
> --Paul Hackett, Democratic candidate for Congress from Ohio's 2nd Congressional District, Major, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, and Iraq War veteran (quoted in Salon)

And over at Whiskey Bar, Billmon identifies a couple other reasons why the Rethugnicans are interested in defeating Major Hackett, and none of them redound to the credit of the Party of Lincoln (not to mention that they are just further data points in favor of the view that The Imminent Death of the American Republic can be expected Real Soon Now):

> Under the circumstances, the GOP's decision to throw $500,000 in slime ads at Hackett in the closing days of the race could be seen as the equivalent of the Mafia's old practice of shooting suspected snitches in the face with a soft nosed bullet -- as a way of making a point. That's how the reptiles are trying to spin it, anyway:

> > What prompted the committee's entry into the Schmidt-Hackett race was a comment made by Hackett in a USA Today article published Thursday. Hackett, talking about his service as a marine in Iraq, is quoted as saying, "I've said I don't like the son-of-a-b--- that lives in the White House. But I'd put my life on the line for him."
> > Because Hackett said that, Forti said, "we decided to bury him."

> Imagine what they would have done to him if he'd said something naughty about Cheney!
> Actually, I think the "revenge" angle is pure propaganda, a clever way to gull the media into believing this is not a crash effort to keep Hackett from getting close enough for him and the Dems to claim a moral victory. But the fact that the GOP can afford to dump $500k into a race just to keep the opposition from scoring a few bragging points (or to punish the crime of lese majesty -- take your pick) is a sign of just how much of a financial supercharge 10 years of DeLayism have given the machine.

Speaking of whom, I'm finding it harder and harder to believe that, were one to visit Abraham Lincoln's tomb today, that one would not hear a whirring noise coming from it....
Spin away, Abe. Spin away....
Len on 07.31.05 @ 12:36 PM CST [link]
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## Inspiring a sad musing....

Over at "Our Obligatory Blog", net friend Stan Schwarz tells us of a teacher who changed his life, obviously for the better. It's a fun little story, and well worth taking a gander at....
Though he makes me realize that I can't name a teacher in my whole academic career who was in any way so influential that I can say that s/he changed my life.
Not one.
I was going to end this by saying I'd think about it, and see if I couldn't identify a teacher who'd had a life-changing influence on me, but then it hit me that this was simply silly. If there were such a teacher in my life, s/he would come to mind immediately. The very fact that I'd have to think about it proves to me that such a teacher has as much objective existence as "the present King of France", to use a famous example.
This is not to say that I've not had any good teachers. In fact, I can name one right off the bat--Carl Wellman, the premier scholar in ethics during my time at Washington University; my only hesitation at calling Professor Wellman "good" is that it just isn't a good enough superlative, but for that matter "most excellent" isn't good enough to describe him, either--and I don't feel that taking some time to think about all my teachers to identify the good ones isn't that silly. But none, alas, provided me with any sort of "life changing" experience.
One might have. In fact, I've never forgiven Steven Lubet, of Northwestern University School of Law, for two things he did while he was one of my clinical teachers there. The first thing was being such a scathing critic of my work under him that, depressed for a week afterward, I gave serious thought to dropping out of law school.
The second thing I've never forgiven him for is later calling me into his office, tempering his criticism, telling me that it was meant not to be harsh, but to inspire me to be the best lawyer that I could be, and causing that depression to lift. As a result, I finished law school. If he'd have just kept his goddamned mouth shut, I'd have dropped out of law school, and saved myself a lot of time, money, and heartbreak.
And probably be precisely where I am now.
So....I've had the worst of all possible worlds. Not only have I not had the pleasure of a teacher who changed my life for the better; I've had one who, when he could have changed my life for the better, totally fucked up.
Nothing to do but soldier on, I guess.
:-)
Len on 07.31.05 @ 12:05 PM CST [link]
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## Blog crushes?

Now, on the opposite end of the spectrum from Serious On-Line Dating Hopes and Aspirations, I found this GEM about "Blog Crushes."
Alright, here is gal on a blog called Perverted Republican. [Tho' I think that is Redundant - LOL] With this tag-line: ….thinking outside of the heart-shaped box....determined to obliterate the stereotype that Republicans are prudes....
Her About Me says:

> Name: blondage
> Location: Somewhere in the Hawwwwt South
> [And this added Disclaimer:]
> This site is intended for ADULTS ONLY! If you are not of age, literally or figuratively, get the hell out!!!!!!! *cracks whip*

She writes:

> " I'm smitten
> Blogosphere crushes.
> *happy sigh*
> Is anyone else suffering from one? Or two? Or ten?
> I can think of............oh.........a DOZEN men in particular.
> I must be the queen of the blog crush.
> The Blondage Twelve.
> *melts*
> Clever men all...
> They make me smile and make me think......and they never throw their underwear on my floor.....
> Oh what the hell. I'm naming names, alphabetically of course...."

But me thinks she goes a tad overboard with these 12 Bloggie Crushes of Blogger’s Sites.
Sheesh, ya’ think she does fancy herself the “queen of the blog crush” or is she just a bit too young to KNOW Better!!
Let's hear it readers...What say you all to "Blog Crushes"????
LOL.
Karen on 07.31.05 @ 09:33 AM CST [link]
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## Unsurprising, but sad news....

Raymond "Lee" Cunningham, dead at age 100.
I know that very few of you are obsessive enough Cardinals fans (or for that matter, obsessive enough baseball fans) to have this fact at your fingertips, but "Lee" Cunningham was, for a brief time (less than a year I think), the oldest living former MLB player, and by virtue of that, the oldest living former Cardinal (having played a few games for the Redbirds in 1931-32).
And now, as The Cardinals Birdhouse writers have put it, he's gotten his callup to That Higher League.
Requesciat in Pace, Lee.
Len on 07.31.05 @ 09:19 AM CST [link]
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## Thought for the Day:

Mom kept telling me that hard work never killed anyone, but I figure, why take chances?
Len on 07.31.05 @ 08:59 AM CST [link]
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## Terribly Sad, Kinda Internet Dating, On-Line Thing...

Our very own Daily Herald started a webpage (caught up in all the Bloggie Fever and Hype of the past few months) called Beep: Honk Your Horn.
One entry was from this gal and her re-entry into On-Line dating:

> "...I checked all the boxes in my new profile and came up with a crafty bio. I typed a decent headline and chose a username I liked. I even spent time customizing a search.
> I awaited the results:
> "We couldn't find any matches for that search ... but don't let that stop you!"
> What? You couldn't find any matches for my search? I LIVE IN CHICAGO, home of 3-plus million people.
> Where did I go wrong? I had checked "any" for income and profession, hair color and spirituality. Did limiting myself to only men 5'9" and taller weed everyone out? Or perhaps it was my requirement that he had completed high school.
> This is not a good sign.
> I am crushed.
> I will have a glass of wine...."

Yikes!!! Being Happily Married™ I don't live in that world of "Dating" (On-Line or Off-Line either) -- BUT, I would hope that If I ever had to look for another Heart's Desire™ I wouldn't end up with not a single, solitary match for my Womanishly Good Qualities™.
*SIGH*
I've always been of the notion that there is "someone for everyone" (and maybe even more than one "someone") -- But this gal may be the dis-proof of that Theory 'o' Life. And sadly so, for her. :-(
Karen on 07.31.05 @ 08:46 AM CST [link]
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## More Use-Less But Interesting Objects...

I am considering taking a Chicago Faux-Historical Tour of Gangsta Places in Da City. My friend, Linda, has been wanting to do this bus tour trip.
But on their Website for The Untouchable's Tour, I came across some Schwaggy promotional items -- and this one caught my eye as yet More Use-Less, but interesting objects: Magnetic Bullet Holes.
Although I can think of a mutitude of reasons why my kids would want exactly that item!!! LOL
Karen on 07.31.05 @ 08:25 AM CST [link]
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## More Faux Holidays...

Yet another Faux Holiday has come and gone on Friday: System Administrator Appreciation Day.

> A special day, once a year, to acknowledge the worthiness and appreciation of the person occupying the role, especially as it is often this person who really keeps the wheels of your company turning.
> This appreciation day includes many system administrators:
> * Computer Administrators
> * Network Administrators
> * Internet Administrators (webmaster)
> * Telephone (PBX) Administrators
> * Voice-Mail Administrators
> * Database Administrators (DBA)
> * Email System Administrators
> * Mainframe Administrators

They have a nice description of what an S.A. does and some nifty gift ideas (but to avoid Schwag: any stuff with the Company's own Logo orused as promotional give-aways) for your SysAdmin.
But Boo Whoo, I have no S.A. (only my techno-Wizards, Len and Brock)-- who I am sure were appropriately Appreciated on Friday at their respective places of employment. :-)
Karen on 07.31.05 @ 08:12 AM CST [link]
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## Saturday, July 30, 2005

## Thought for the Day:

The Bears end up with bad players in several categories: a black kid, two Spanish speakers, an Indian, a kid almost too little to hold the bat and another one in a motorized wheelchair. What they have in common is not their minority status, but their inability to play the game.
They revived my own childhood memories of Little League, which I hated; it was a meritocracy in which good players were heroes and I was pointed toward right field with the hope that I would just keep on walking. Well, of course it was a meritocracy. Sports involves winning, and winning involves skills. What I could never figure out was how some kids had always been good at sports and others would never be any good, no matter how hard they tried: Kids like me, so nearsighted that the approach of a ball had to be described to me by teammates.
--Roger Ebert [on the film The Bad News Bears (2005)]
Len on 07.30.05 @ 05:16 PM CST [link]
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## Employment Law 101 (Illinois Style)

Apropos of Len’s post about goings-on here in local Chicago/Illinois Politics and Hizzoner Richard Daley and the $10,000 bounty offer from Gary Skoien (Chairman of the Cook County GOP party): Is this updated tid-bit about a little “Employment Law 101”:

> "The U.S. Constitution may guarantee that Cook County GOP Chairman Gary Skoien can’t be arrested for criticizing Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. It doesn’t say he can’t be fired.
> State and federal employment laws give bosses wide latitude in assuring that their employees don’t embarrass or endanger their companies with the things they say.
> In fact, as a so-called “at will” state, Illinois says most employees work at the discretion of their companies and may be fired for almost any reason, or, in some cases, no reason at all.
> Illinois doesn’t require employers to be fair about a firing, barring just discriminatory firings for age, creed, race and sex.
> “Your employer can control what you do off the job,” said Helen LaVan, professor of management at DePaul University in Chicago.
> Just two days after Skoien offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the indictment and conviction of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, Skoien’s boss at The Prime Group, a real estate development firm, told him Daley is a personal friend and the real estate company needs good relations with the city.
> So after 15 years with The Prime Group, Skoien was fired.
> He says he won’t sue but even if he did, his case would be a long shot, according to LaVan...."

Courtesy of Mike Comerford: Government may not be able to censor you, but your boss can; (Daily Herald).
And there are rising questions about whether Skoien ought to retain his GOP Chairmanship in the wake of this Fiasco. Might be "Hasta la Vista, Gary."
Karen on 07.30.05 @ 08:46 AM CST [link]
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## Birthday Suits Welcome...

Vienna's Leopold Museum is featuring 180 works in a new exhibit. These masterpieces which originally scandalized the Viennese “when native Art Nouveau masters like Klimt, widely known for his sensuous "The Kiss," began producing works some critics panned as ‘indecency,’ ‘artistic self-pollution’ and borderline pornography…. include Klimt's "Nude Veritas," an 1899 painting of a naked young woman with wildflowers in her hair”
So…

> ”Scores of naked or scantily clad people wandered the museum, lured by an offer of free entry to "The Naked Truth," an exhibition of early 1900s erotic art, if they showed up wearing just a swimsuit or nothing at all.”

This exhibit is on display through Aug. 22. in Vienna.
Apparently it’s a “Come as You are Party” or “Birthday Suits Welcome.”
Courtesy of The Chicago Tribune.
Karen on 07.30.05 @ 08:31 AM CST [link]
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## Of Planets and Black Holes...

Well – when I last visited Pluto…it sure looked like a planet to me…
Astronomers Claim Discovery of 10th Planet
By Alicia Chang (Assoc. Press):

> ”Astronomers announced Friday that they have discovered a new planet larger than Pluto in orbit around the sun. The finding will likely renew debate over what exactly is a planet and whether Pluto should keep its status.
> The unnamed object - the farthest-known object in the solar system - is currently 9 billion miles away from the sun, or about three times Pluto's current distance from the sun. Astronomers do not know its exact size, but its brightness shows that it is at least as large as Pluto and could be up to 1 1/2 times bigger…
> "This is the first object to be confirmed to be larger than Pluto in the outer solar system,'' Michael Brown, a planetary scientist at the California Institute of Technology, said in a telephone briefing.
> The briefing was hastily arranged after Brown received word that a secure Web site containing the discovery was hacked and the hacker threatened to release the information. [and What's with these "hackers"???]
> Brown labeled the object as a 10th planet, but there are scientists who dispute the classification of Pluto as such. There is no official definition for a planet and setting standards like size limits or orbital patterns potentially invites other objects to take the "planet'' label.
> ….
> The new planet is rocky and icy, similar to Pluto, and is the third brightest object located in the Kuiper belt, a disc of icy debris beyond the orbit of Neptune, Brown said.
> It has taken scientists this long to find the planet because its orbit is at an angle compared to the orbits of most planets….”

But, as I was being chased by them jealous and pesky Black Holes, I never noticed yet another planet in the vicinity myself.
Now the folks at the Hayden Planetarium will have to update their Digital Universe to include this new Planetary Heavenly Body (once it’s named) in the fields of orbit around our Sun.
Always more to do in this universe. Sheesh!! -- an astronomer’s work is never done!!! LOL
Karen on 07.30.05 @ 07:16 AM CST [link]
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## Friday, July 29, 2005

## Tonight's Blogger Bash

Just a quickie. We all convened at Dish, at the northeast corner of Cooper and Young in Midtown, at the appointed time. While Dish does indeed have wi-fi access (at least a couple others were able to get online, from what I could see), my allegedly wi-fi enabled Palm Tungsten C obstinately refused to connect to the access point, so I wasn't able to do a quick live blog of the event, like I'd hoped. :-(
Eric Janssen (Webraw, Quixtar Blog, and Plug In) made an appearance early in the evening, but he had daddy duty tonight, so he was on his way to take his kids to see Sky High. Since that movie's been getting some good reviews, I have no doubt that he and his sprouts had a great time; still it was good to catch up with Eric for a bit.
Other attendees, in no particular order: E.J. ("fresh", if that's the right term, from the afternoon Love in Action rally), Dr. Abby, Dr. Dad, Abby's Mom (the "baseball fanatic", as Abby described her, so I knew we'd get along just fine), Aaron, "Mr. Mike" Hollihan, Mark, Phil Harwell, Brock, Chris Davis, and, capturing the prize for longest trip to make it to the Bash, Bruce Garrett, who was visiting us from Baltimore, Maryland, home of Sportsmans Park East Oriole Park at Camden Yards and the St. Louis Browns Balitmore Orioles (Karen, as soon as I can get the information I'll tell you how to send Bruce the traveling trophy... ;-) ).
All, in all, the company was superb; I got a chance to catch up with everyone present, and to bid farewell to Dr. Abby and Aaron. Good food, a great atmosphere, and plenty of good things to drink to keep the conversation flowing. If you're a Memphis blogger, and you missed it.... Well, it was your loss, but remember that you're more than welcome to the next Bash.... Tonight was, as all prior Bashes have been, an evening's dignified insurrection well deserving of:

# The Art Schroeder Memorial Synopsis™

A great time was had by all, and nobody was arrested.
Len on 07.29.05 @ 11:09 PM CST [link]
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## Frist flip-flops on embryonic stem-cell research....

and may well have insured his retirement to private citizenhood, vice moving into the Oval Office come 2008 (we can only hope!). The Pesky Fly has the story.
Len on 07.29.05 @ 11:54 AM CST [link]
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## The Truth About Term Limits (A Very Bad Idea, indeed)

From Chris Lawrence who, as a political scientist, knows whereof he speaks, I'm sure:

> ... pretty much everyone who’s studied the issue of term limits seriously finds that the effects of term limits are pretty much the opposite of those promised by proponents: instead of producing "citizen legislators" who aren’t beholden to parties or organized interests, it produces a legislature full of political novices who have to rely on unelected party leaders and lobbyists, since they lack the political expertise and experience necessary to exercise good independent judgment.
> A far better method for producing an accountable legislature is to ensure vigorous competition for seats, which suggests that Mississippi would be better served by overhauling the gerrymandered monstrosities we call legislative districts than selecting a fresh batch of mediocre politicians every eight years from constituencies that are the result of racial and partisan redistricting.

That's probably advice that would be well taken elsewhere than Mississippi, I'm sure....
Len on 07.29.05 @ 11:49 AM CST [link]
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## One More for the Road...

Beer-Can Chicken with Cola Barbecue Sauce:
Now this was just becoming the rage in Minnesota when I moved in 2002, but it's also known by earthier names (or variants there of) as Beer Bottom Chicken.
Beginning with: “Open a can of beer and drink half”, and these other ingredients:

> 1 (12-ounce) can beer
> 1 cup hickory wood chips
> 2 teaspoons kosher or sea salt
> 2 teaspoons brown sugar
> 2 teaspoons sweet paprika
> 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
> 1 (4-pound) whole chicken
> Cooking spray

The operative part of the Cooking is to “Holding chicken upright with the body cavity facing down, insert beer can into cavity.”
And then the Trick is to Balance the Little Fryer Upright like a tripod on the beer can while its’cooking.
And as the Chef says:

> "I like any recipe that starts with, 'Open a can of beer and drink half'" says Raichlen. American ingenuity has produced a variety of beer-can roasters that hold the can in place and stabilize the tipsy chicken. Aluminum cans bend easily under the pressure, so when piercing holes, it's a good idea to use a can-holding gadget.

Can’t say as I’ve ever had the “Cola Sauce” [see recipe at the link above] but this Beer Butt Chicken recipe is supposed to yield very flavorful, juicy and tender bird. So, If yer wondering what to fix this weekend on the grille - Enjoy!!
Karen on 07.29.05 @ 11:34 AM CST [link]
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## Oops!

Josh Marshall reminds me of what was one of the featured stories on Rachel Maddow's Air America show this morning, namely, that "Revoltin'" John Bolton "forgot" that he'd been interviewed by the State Department Inspector General in connection with their inquiry as to how the Iraq-Niger yellowcake story managed to find its way into the State of the Union address. This is by way of explanation of why Bolton told the Senate, in connection with his confirmation hearings on his now dead appointment as U.N. Ambassador (well, dead in the Senate, though I'm hearing rumors that Bush will be giving him the expected recess appointment, possibly as early as next week), that he'd never given testimony or statements in connection with any investigations during his tenure at the State Department.
I don't know about any of the rest of you, but this is reminding me of a classic Steve Martin schtick from one of his albums. In that monologue, Martin states that he'd decided that he was never going to file an income tax return again, but that he had no fear of going to jail for it, because he'd thought of a perfect, iron-clad excuse that would get him off if the IRS ever caught up with him and inquired as to why he hadn't filed tax returns.
That excuse?

> Iiiiiiiiii..... forgot!

Yep. Works for me.....
Len on 07.29.05 @ 09:31 AM CST [link]
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## In this, the last season of play at Busch Stadium II....

fans are getting mushily sentimental over the "Millions of Memories"™ that they have collected over the past 40 seasons.
But over at his blog, "Fuck Your Couch", Alex Fritz is casting doubts on one of those memories, as he debunks The Legend of Mike Laga. For those of you who aren't obsessive Cardinals fans, Mike Laga is pretty much a non-entity with one fluke season (1984) who toiled with the Tigers, Cardinals and Giants, and who's major claim to fame is that he is allegedly the only player in history to hit a baseball completely out of Busch Stadium II (though that was a foul ball, not a home run). "Allegedly", because, as Alex points out, the evidence that Laga actually did accomplish that feat is a bit lacking.
Len on 07.29.05 @ 07:55 AM CST [link]
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## Chocoholic Day Dreams...

Now IF Memphis had a few of these places for the next Blogger Bash... I might be persuaded to come there. LOL
A Place for Cocoa Nuts by Amy Chozik (The Wall Street Journal) [courtesy of the Daily Herald] explains:

> "New chocolate cafés cater to Chicagoans with a sweet tooth. Three more are on the way - including one in Naperville
> At Ethel's Chocolate Lounge in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood, couples and families relax on plush pastel-colored furniture, eating champagne chocolates and sipping mocha drinks. Behind a glass pane, espresso, pina colada and honey-flavored truffles sell for about $42 a pound. A sign reads "Chocolate is the New Black."
> ....
> Naperville already is home to several chocolate shops, but Ethel's would be the first with café seating.
> ...
> The $14.5 billion U.S. chocolate industry could use a shot of espresso. Dominated by decades-old products like Hershey bars and M&M's, the industry has posted annual sales increases of less than 3 percent from 2002 to 2004, reports the National Confectioners Association, an industry trade group. Meanwhile, sales at upscale coffee and cocoa stores (a category that includes Godiva as well as sit-down spots like Starbucks) rose 20.6 percent in the same period.
> "The only way for chocolate makers to see real growth is through innovation," says Susan Fussell, a spokeswoman for the National Confectioners Association in Vienna, Va.
> ....
> Mars' Haugh says that in small quantities, chocolate isn't any more unhealthy than other popular indulgences. A four-piece serving of Ethel's chocolate has about 160 to 220 calories, about the same amount as a latte made with whole milk. "Ethel's is about maximizing the chocolate experience. It's not about volume," says Haugh. The company says it expects customers to stay for a couple of hours during a typical visit.
> ....
> The chocolate lounge dates back to 17th-century London, about a century after cocoa was brought to Europe from Latin America. Designed for the elite, European chocolate houses offered comfortable seating where the upper crust could socialize while drinking hot chocolate. .... Even the most diet-conscious consumers said they would occasionally splurge on "premium" chocolate - in terms of calories and money - if it was part of a broader social experience."

Chocoholics are welcome at these places in Chicago:

> Ethel's Chocolate Lounge
> • 527 Davis St., Evanston
> (847) 424-0790
> • 819 W. Armitage Ave., Chicago
> (773) 281-0029
> • North Bridge Mall, 520 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago
> (312) 464-9330
> Hershey's Chicago
> • 822 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago
> (312) 337-7711

And our own Geneva Chocolatier:

> Graham's Fine Chocolate's
> 302 S. 3rd Street
> Geneva, Il
> (630) 232-6655

[Which has always had seating - indoor and outdoor - for its patrons to enjoy the chocolates and handmade ice creams. To DIE for.]
So, when the next Bash is held at a Memphis Chocolate Shop... count ME in!!!
:-)
And a HAPPY MOVE for Dr. Abby and Best Wishes for her new City and Job. We will be sure to read about it on her blog soon.
Karen on 07.29.05 @ 07:13 AM CST [link]
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## Jobs Interviews I can Say "NO" to:

Never had an Interview quite like this one:
`Stress' job interview a signal to look elsewhere by Carol Kleiman (Chicago Tribune):

> "Stress interviews: Many managers and hiring officers in the human resources profession think that keeping job applicants "off balance" and on the defensive by asking somewhat obnoxious questions is the best strategy to find out exactly what the job seeker is "made of." And they also are convinced it's a good way to observe how candidates think and react with no time to prepare.
> But "stress" interviewing is not popular with job seekers, who think it's unfair. Job applicants complain to me about being asked if they had a happy childhood, how do they react to authority, what they would do if they found one of their colleagues was spreading ugly rumors about them and what animal would they like to be?
> And that's just for openers.
> ....
> "The great U.S. Navy admiral Hyman Rickover is said to have sawed off chair legs just to see how candidates reacted when the chair collapsed under them. Another interviewer told me he required candidates to tie their shoes in front of him because he believed their tying technique revealed great insight into their potential.
> ....
> And while the executive recruiter urges employers not to use "stealth" questions in interviews but to use professional assessment firms instead, he also advises job applicants to "think twice about working for a company that would encourage such a counterproductive interviewing technique."
> In other words, don't take the abuse...."

Karen on 07.29.05 @ 06:56 AM CST [link]
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## Still working away on my PC...

However, came a cross a couple of GEMs which must be posted in the meanwhile:
Now even Stan will have to admit this is one for the books: Tattooed Chinese Pigs

> "...The idea was cooked up by Belgian artist Wim Delvoye, who has hired a small staff of local farmers and tattoo artists to raise some 20 sows and use them as canvases for skin art at his rustic China base, Art Farm.
> "I decided to do something in China first, and I realized tattooing pigs would be a good introduction to the country. It's low-tech," Delvoye, 40, told Reuters.
> The pigs get sedatives before they go under the needle and are carefully raised until their natural deaths, normally well past the six-month mark when farm pigs are slaughtered...."

and this picture of one of the "works of art" (tho it says they tranquilize them first *Whew*) Harley Hog.
Karen on 07.29.05 @ 06:45 AM CST [link]
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## MasterCard Red Sox parody ad has a permanent home.

Back in January I posted a link to a masterful Comedy Central parody of MasterCard ads, premised on the tendency of sports fans to make rash "promises" as expressions of hope for their team: "I'd give my left nut for the Sox to win the World Series". Unfortunately, Comedy Central has long since pulled that item from their website, and I was worried that it was no longer generally available.
However, in looking for something else I was happy to see that Web humorist Al Lowe (better known to some computer gamers as the creator of the Leisure Suit Larry series of mature themed computer games) has archived this gem (Windows Media Player required). So enjoy!
Len on 07.29.05 @ 06:08 AM CST [link]
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## Thought for the Day:

There surely are instances in which overzealous school administrators and others go too far in the cause of nondiscrimination, silencing religious speech that is clearly protected by the First Amendment. Such infringements should be fought for reasons both principled, because Christians have the same right to free speech as everyone else, and political, because these abuses generate a backlash that ultimately harms the cause of church-state separation.
But the ACLU doesn't need to be told to take this stance -- it already has, despite attempts by the Christian right to distort its record.
In 2003, Jerry Falwell published a piece on the right-wing Web site Newsmax titled "The Case of the Offensive Candy Canes." "Seven high school students in Westfield, Mass., have been suspended solely for passing out candy canes containing religious messages," he wrote. A few paragraphs later, he continued, "The fact is, students have the right to free speech in the form of verbal or written expression during non-instructional class time. And yes, students have just as much right to speak on religious topics as they do on secular topics -- no matter what the ACLU might propagate."
In fact, the ACLU submitted a friend-of-the-court brief in the case defending the students on the grounds that, as the ACLU's attorney said, "students have a right to communicate ideas, religious or otherwise, to other students during their free time, before or after class, in the cafeteria, or elsewhere."
Nevertheless, stories about the ACLU and its evil plots against Christian confections proliferated in the right-wing media. And this points to the problem with taking seriously many of the Christian right's complaints about secular hostility to their religious expression. Last year, the evangelical right was up in arms over a so-called war on Christmas, symbolized by the decision of Federated Department Stores, which owns both Macy's and Bloomingdale's, to use the phrase "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." But that move was inspired by capitalism -- the company wanted to make as many customers feel as comfortable as possible in order to get their money -- not by legal secularism or anti-Christian bias.
--Michelle Goldberg [salon.com]
Len on 07.29.05 @ 05:50 AM CST [link]
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## Thursday, July 28, 2005

## From the "Alas, too true!" department:

From The Late Show with David Letterman, Top Ten George W. Bush Solutions For Global Warming:

> 10. NASA mission to turn down the sun's thermostat
> 9. Federal subsidies to boost production of Cool Ranch Doritos
> 8. Fast track Rumsfeld's "Colonize Neptune" proposal
> 7. Convene Blue-Ribbon Committee to explore innovative ways of ignoring the problem
> 6. Let Hillary worry about it when she takes over
> 5. I dunno---tax cuts for the rich?
> 4. Give the boys at Halliburton 90-billion dollar contract to patch hole in ozone
> 3. Switch to Celsius so scorching 98 becomes frosty 37
> 2. Keep plenty of Bud on ice
> 1. Invade Antartica

Len on 07.28.05 @ 12:50 PM CST [link]
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## And the General is on the case....

General J.C. Christian, Patriot, follows up on the rumors about Turd's mistress:

> Karen Johnson
> Infrastructure Solutions
> Dear Ms Johnson,
> There are rumors floating around the internet that you are Karl Rove's concubine. Is it true? I sure hope so.
> There's nothing wrong with serving as his concubine. It's a position steeped in ancient biblical tradition. Mr. Rove, the deliverer of elections and master of the Christian base, deserves a stable of mistresses just as David, the slayer of Goliath and king of God's chosen people, had his own harem of concubines.
> More importantly, it would put an end to all the talk about Mr. Rove and that harlot, Jeff Gannon. Every time I think about it, I get this mental picture of Mr. Rove on all fours like Ned Beatty in Deliverance, his flabby flesh rippling and his belly and man-breasts bouncing in a rhythm dictated by Gannon's furious pounding and punctuated by Karl's calf-like bellows. I'd rather not have to picture that anymore.
> Heterosexually yours,
> Gen. JC Christian, patriot

Len on 07.28.05 @ 12:33 PM CST [link]
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## Yer fifteen minutes of fame start now....

Congratulations to Memphis blogger Mark at The Conservative Zone, who came home from a gaming outing with his buddy "Mr. Mike" Hollihan of Half-Bakered to find out that his "Hanoi Jane" post had made the Washington Post:

> It took only a few nanoseconds for the right side of the blogosphere to get fired up.
> It took, in fact, only two words: Jane Fonda.
> News that the actress and activist is planning an antiwar bus tour was greeted by calmly reasoned analysis.
> The Conservative Zone:
> "Hanoi Jane is at it again. . . . In 1972, she committed Treason when she collaborated with the enemy and urged that US soldiers quit fighting. Today, she is calling for an immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq, leaving them in the lurch and unable to withstand the terrorist forces.
> "This B-I-T-C-H is a traitor twice now in my eyes. She has the right to voice her opinions, but her past actions have branded her a traitor and she deserves to be treated like one."

Mark's already aware that his fifteen minutes of fame have started, so if you feel tempted to go visit him, be civil (if you're not already on that side of the aisle that's predisposed to be civil to him). I've met Mark, and he's a pretty nice guy, and not as reality challenged as some wingnuts. I'm sure he even parsed the HTML "sarcasm" tags in Howard Kurtz's post there, even if he isn't letting on (that I can see). :-)
Idle question... Is Mark still a member of The Rocky Top Brigade? He links to the old RTB page and does mention it on his main page, but I don't see him in the group blogroll at the side of the new RTB page. Just curious....
Len on 07.28.05 @ 10:17 AM CST [link]
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## More PC Woes…

Well, just a few days ago I sorted out the home office of PC’s and updated everything, reconfigured and wiped all the PC’s to have a fresh start. Things are working great!!
But now I will get to my PC…
I’m about to go into the belly of my PC Beast. Long story short - when we got these PC’s (five IBM Think Pad Laptop’s) for the business office, my husband had the “Brilliant” idea to partition my computer’s hard drive with both XP and Win 98 – XP being just a few weeks on the market and perhaps incompatible with much of our existing programs and printers and modems. In his theory, I could then run both OS’s and work between them without a loss of functioning if XP did not support all our hardware and existing programs.
It didn’t exactly work out that way. Win 98 is still an awful OS: keep malfunctioning and locking up…is essentially useless. So, I’m wasting half of my hard drive on this horrible Win 98 OS, and have abandoned that side of the partition for the XP side. But that’s not the only reason to repartition and get rid of the Win 98; as I am now getting “Blue Screen” error shut downs on the XP side. [Which Len tells me are really, really bad error messages and my PC is in some serious trouble!!]
I am currently busy off loading all of my files, pictures and saved stuff onto CD’s to ready this for a major OS overhaul and reinstall of XP. But, I have come across some Google searches indicating some folks have attempted this repartition process and had a total system failure with the inability to reboot their PC at all.
Techie-dweeb that I am, this could get quite *interesting* and I may be off-line for longer than I anticipate. But Len will take up the (s)lack of posts – and he’s already been quite Bizee today – til I am back and fully PC operational yet again.
:-)
Karen on 07.28.05 @ 09:05 AM CST [link]
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## Techno-Geek Political Humor

Yes, Virginia, there really is such a beast. Here's The War On Terror: As viewed from the Bourne shell. And if you're not a Unix geek (i.e., not Brock, not Bryan, or not Josh; did I miss anyone?) and therefore don't get the jokes, here's The War On Terror--For Dummies (i.e., the geek jokes explained for non-geeks).
Credit: Josh
Len on 07.28.05 @ 07:51 AM CST [link]
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## More musings on "The PR Initiative Against Terror"...

um, excuse me.. that's "The PR Initiative Against Violent Extremism". MadKane gives us her take, in verse.
Audio version here.
UPDATE: More kudos to Mad! Bush Watch picked up on this poem (and the audio link) and featured it on today's entry (scroll to "Thursday, July 28, 2005" if you're not viewing this one today).
Well done!
Len on 07.28.05 @ 07:39 AM CST [link]
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## Interesting rumors from Karen's neck o' the woods....

Karen's Representative in Congress is the Honorable *snick* Dennis Hastert.
Rumors are filtering out from Chicagoland that Hastert may be exerting influence on the bAdministration to insure that Patrick Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois and Special Prosecutor in the Valerie Plame identity-leak investigation, is not reappointed to that office (i.e., U.S. Attorney) when his term ends this October. Apparently, if Fitzgerald is not appointed, it would not be a "Saturday Night Massacre" scenario resulting from his handling of the Plame case, but rather would be a payback for Fitzgerald's aggressive prosecution of political corruption cases in the Land o'Lincoln. From the Chicago Tribune article:

> Former U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald said Wednesday he believes there is mounting political pressure to oppose the reappointment of U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald this fall, given his aggressive prosecution of government corruption in Illinois.
> The former senator questioned whether House Speaker Dennis Hastert, the state's top Republican, would support the prosecutor when President Bush decides whether to extend his term in Chicago.
> But Hastert, who often battled with Sen. Fitzgerald while the two Republicans served together in Congress, quickly shot down the ex-senator's claims. Hastert's office said the decision rests entirely with President Bush and Hastert has no role whatsoever in whether the prosecutor keeps his job.
> Fitzgerald was the state's Republican U.S. senator in 2001 when he went outside Illinois' political and legal circles to recommend Patrick Fitzgerald, who was then a federal prosecutor in New York. Peter Fitzgerald contends that the subsequent indictment of former GOP Gov. George Ryan and the federal investigation of Mayor Richard Daley's City Hall have angered powerful politicians in both parties. The Fitzgeralds are not related.
> "I'd be pleasantly surprised if Speaker Hastert recommended Patrick Fitzgerald for reappointment," the former senator said in a telephone interview, echoing comments he made in a WGN-TV interview Wednesday.
> "But I'm beginning to sense that a lot of people, a lot of criminals, may hope that October brings them a new U.S. attorney in Chicago, one perhaps a little bit more malleable and acceptable to influence from leading Republicans and leading Democrats."

Josh Marshall points out that Patrick Fitzgerald's term as U.S. Attorney in Chicago is a separate matter from his appointment as special prosecutor in the Plame investigation:

> Now, there are a few points to make clear here -- the most important of which is that, at least in my understanding, Fitzgerald's appointment as special prosecutor in the Plame case is entirely separate from his appointment as USA in Chicago. So presumably getting dumped from one wouldn't affect his tenure in the other. Still, canning him in the main job wouldn't be a bad way of getting some pay back.

Of course, even if Fitzgerald is canned as U.S. Attorney, there's absolutely no danger that he'll be seen laying in the alleyways of Chicago as a drunken, drug addicted bum anytime soon. Indeed, most likely this rumor is causing the greatest amount of excitement in the conference rooms of big law firms in Chicago and New York, where some firm management committees are trying to devise the compensation package most likely to entice Fitzgerald to come toil in their litigation departments....
UPDATE: Steve Gilliard has some great comments on the breaking news that the Cook County (IL) GOP has offered a $10,000 reward for evidence leading to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's indictment and conviction on corruption charges:

> Daley affair: 10G reward

> > CHICAGO--The Cook County Republican Party is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an indictment and conviction of Mayor Richard Daley, whose administration has been buffeted by scandal.

> A: Just $10K? That's not even a good kickback
> B: They ran Alan Keyes for Senate
> C: Wasn't George Ryan a crook?
> D: I think that's Patrick Fitzgerald's job

Just as good is this gem:
Only $10G's, dad would be so ashamed.
Len on 07.28.05 @ 07:32 AM CST [link]
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## It's things like this that make me proud to have been a military lawyer....

From today's New York Times: Military's Opposition to Harsh Interrogation Is Outlined

> Senior military lawyers lodged vigorous and detailed dissents in early 2003 as an administration legal task force concluded that President Bush had authority as commander in chief to order harsh interrogations of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, newly disclosed documents show.
> Despite the military lawyers' warnings, the task force concluded that military interrogators and their commanders would be immune from prosecution for torture under federal and international law because of the special character of the fight against terrorism.
> In memorandums written by several senior uniformed lawyers in each of the military services as the legal review was under way, they had urged a sharply different view and also warned that the position eventually adopted by the task force could endanger American service members.
> The memorandums were declassified and released last week in response to a request from Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina. Mr. Graham made the request after hearings in which officers representing the military's judge advocates general acknowledged having expressed concerns over interrogation policies.
> The documents include one written by the deputy judge advocate general of the Air Force, Maj. Gen. Jack L. Rives, advising the task force that several of the "more extreme interrogation techniques, on their face, amount to violations of domestic criminal law" as well as military law.
> General Rives added that many other countries were likely to disagree with the reasoning used by Justice Department lawyers about immunity from prosecution. Instead, he said, the use of many of the interrogation techniques "puts the interrogators and the chain of command at risk of criminal accusations abroad."
> Any such crimes, he said, could be prosecuted in other nations' courts, international courts or the International Criminal Court, a body the United States does not formally participate in or recognize.
> ...
> The memorandums provide the most complete record to date of how uniformed military lawyers were frequently the chief dissenters as government officials formulated interrogation policies.

As a former Navy JAG, I'm glad to see that the Navy and Marine Corps legal communities are represented in this dissent:

> Rear Adm. Michael F. Lohr, the Navy's chief lawyer, wrote on Feb. 6, 2003, that while detainees at Guantánamo Bay might not qualify for international protections, "Will the American people find we have missed the forest for the trees by condoning practices that, while technically legal, are inconsistent with our most fundamental values?"
> Brig. Gen. Kevin M. Sandkuhler, a senior Marine lawyer, said in a Feb. 27, 2003, memorandum that all the military lawyers believed the harsh interrogation regime could have adverse consequences for American service members. General Sandkuhler said that the Justice Department "does not represent the services; thus, understandably, concern for service members is not reflected in their opinion." [emphasis supplied --LRC]

But then again, we've seen how Dumbya Bush and his buffoons "support the troops" before, so their lack of concern for service members should come as no surprise.
UPDATE: Over at Newsrack, fellow RTB member Thomas Nephew gives play to a few thoughts on the subject himself.
Len on 07.28.05 @ 07:14 AM CST [link]
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## Good question...

Josh Marshall asks a very good question concerning the latest brouhaha over the John Roberts Supreme Court nomination:

> Out of the corner of my eye I've been watching this growing dispute over whether and which 'documents' about Judge Roberts the White House will turn over to the senate as part of his confirmation hearings. And quite apart from the particular documents in question, I'm wondering what the argument is, precisely, for the White House having access to any more information in the process of nominating Roberts than the Senate should have in confirming him.
> It seems like a basic point of logic. Why should the senate's call be, by definition, less well-informed than the president's?

Excellent question, though of course I'm not expecting any good answers from this bAdministration. Given their past history, I can only assume that there's something embarassing in the documents that they're desperately trying to hide.
Len on 07.28.05 @ 07:05 AM CST [link]
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## Thought for the Day:

The trouble with "Divided by God" is that Feldman seems to accept McConnell's legal argument as the actual political motivation of the Christian right. Values evangelicals, in his telling, just want to be heard along with everybody else. "In its most sophisticated and attractive form, values evangelicism is actually a type of mutliculturalist pluralism, professing respect for faith as faith and for cultural tradition as tradition," Feldman writes. "This inclusive vision of a society in which one can partake in the common American project by the very act of worshipping as one chooses is more than broad enough to accommodate new religious diversity that has come about as a result of Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist immigration."
If this is what "values evangelicism" is, then the term is almost meaningless, since it doesn't apply to any of the leadership of the Christian right, the group that's actually fighting the culture wars that Feldman is trying to mediate. Consider, for example, how the Family Research Council -- the Washington spinoff of James Dobson's enormously powerful Focus on the Family -- reacted in 2000 when Venkatachalapathi Samuldrala became the first Hindu priest to offer an invocation before Congress. "While it is true that the United States of America was founded on the sacred principle of religious freedom for all, that liberty was never intended to exalt other religions to the level that Christianity holds in our country's heritage," the group said in an apoplectic statement. "Our Founders expected that Christianity -- and no other religion -- would receive support from the government as long as that support did not violate peoples' consciences and their right to worship. They would have found utterly incredible the idea that all religions, including paganism, be treated with equal deference."
This was not an isolated outburst -- it wouldn't be hard to find enough similar quotes to fill a volume larger than Feldman's entire book. Sure, the Christian right may invite a token rabbi -- often the South African ultraconservative Daniel Lapin -- to its functions to promote an image of ecumenism, but that cannot hide the motivating belief in Christian supremacy, spiritual and political, at the movement's core.
--Michelle Goldberg [salon.com, on Noah Feldman's Divided by God]
Len on 07.28.05 @ 06:16 AM CST [link]
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## Wednesday, July 27, 2005

## Blogger Bash (repost)

The Time Has Been Set, so we can now set the spatio-temporal co-ordinates with a reasonable degree of certainty:

> Where: Dish
> 948 S. Cooper
> Memphis, TN 38104
> [Midtown Memphis]
> When: 6:30 PM (or 1830 to those of you who are military, police, healthcare workers or others who naturally think in terms of 24 hour clocks) Friday, July 29, 2005, unless I'm misreading the calendar (which I've done in the past...)

So be there or be square. And that's an "exclusive OR", as we say in the computer biz. The only person allowed to be there and be square is me, since I'm constitutionally incapable of being anything other than square. But the rest of y'all aren't so constrained....
Len on 07.27.05 @ 10:10 PM CST [link]
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## Little Shop of Horrors:

Don’t know if walking into a bathroom full of these Floral GEMs would make me RUN in the other direction or think I was on an episode of “Punked.”
Courtesy of Elayne Riggs.
:-)
Karen on 07.27.05 @ 04:37 PM CST [link]
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## Santorum, Latin for "asshole"

For some reason, Rick Santorum's been my bear of the blogs today. (I've earlier mentioned my concept of "the bear"; I stole it from a Lewis Black schtick.)
Anyway, a few interesting things about Santorum came to my attention:

- A most excellent letter to the editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

  > As a teacher for the Diocese of Pittsburgh for 14 years, one important lesson I learned was that no matter what I said to the child, whatever the parents said superseded my message. What parents say and how they live sends a message stronger than any teacher's voice no matter what the issue.
  > Sen. Rick Santorum and his wife have taught their children a powerful lesson on civic responsibility by refusing to pay any tuition money to the Penn Hills School District for their children who attended the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School ("Penn Hills Loses Bid to Charge Santorum," July 12). Released from that payment on a technicality shows that even an upstanding, moral gentleman like Sen. Santorum teaches his children the following lessons:
  > 1) Take advantage of the system whenever you can.
  > 2) The little guy pays while the rich and powerful guy gets away with it.
  > 3) As a Catholic, you have no obligation to pay your share to the common good in spite of Catholic social doctrine.
  > Finally, I am shocked that our religious leaders who see Sen. Santorum as some sort of faith-and-morals hero have not spoken up on this issue at all.
  > SISTER LIGUORI ROSSNER
  > Sisters for Christian Community
  > Bloomfield

- Thomas Oliphant, in the Boston Globe, rightly tears the disHonorable Senator a new Santorum for his stupid comments about the liberal climate in Boston being responsible for the pedophile priests in that Archdiocese:

  > It is not even accurate to assert that Boston was the center of the child abuse horror. A demagogue feasting off headlines could be forgiven three years ago for equating headlines with deeper truth, but the fact is, as Kennedy put it, that this horrific scandal knew no state or ideological boundaries. Using a simple, clarifying concept -- priests accused as a percent of priests in the affected diocese -- the ''center" turns out to have been Covington, Ky. -- known to business travelers everywhere as the home of Cincinnati's airport. The percentage of accused priests there from 1950 on was 9.6 percent, compared to 7 percent in Boston.
  > Perhaps Santorum could examine the wild, permissive sexual climates in such dens of iniquity as Albany, Jackson, Miss., and Belleville, Ill., all of which had greater concentrations of accused priests than Boston did.

  Of course, the real point wasn't that Boston has proportionally more pedophile priests, it just had a slimy, disgusting, utterly worthless archbishop, Bernard Cardinal Law, who bent over backwards to protect his pedophile priests--and who earned a promotion for it (and the fact that the utterly reprehensible Cardinal Law wasn't taken out and shot after he was recalled to the Vatican speaks volumes about what a fraud the Catholic Church is when it pretends to lecture the rest of us on our lousy morals).
- The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has just released a wonderful ad just in time for Santorum's re-election campaign
- Crooks and Liars tells us that General J.C. Christian, patriot, is the brains behind the perfect contraceptive for Santorum's own re-election bid:

  > Call a press conference today and declare that you stand with Sen. Santorum and his efforts to end legal contraception. Contact your membership and ask them to write letters to the editors and to call talk radio shows demanding an end to birth control. We can win this battle with your help....

  The General is most certainly a national treasure.

Len on 07.27.05 @ 01:24 PM CST [link]
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## Why do we have to support our troops like this?

Steve Gilliard shows us an email his friend Jen received at work:

> Hi! All, Today I come to you with a heavy heart to tell you that my nephew, Major Peter S. - US Army, is in Iraq and has been there for over two months. I promised to send to him and his buddies the following items that they need and cannot afford to purchase in Iraq.
> Shaving Cream, Disposable Razors, Handkerchiefs, Q-tips, Visine, Benadryl, Rolaids, Caladryl, Bug Spray, Deodorant, Toothpaste, Toothbrush, Mouthwash, Suntan Lotion, Gum, Bandaids, Bengay, Chapstick, Dental Floss, Breath Mints, Soap, Shampoo, and Conditioner
> Anything that you can give to help my nephew and his fellow soldiers will be greatly appreciated. I have a box in front of my cubicle, Location: xxxxx where you can put in any of the above items. Thank you for your support and please keep my nephew Peter and all are armed service men and women in your prayers. Best Regards, [emphasis in original --LRC]

It's bad enough that our troops can't get such necessities, but the reason they can't just about knocked me over:

> Jen
> Now, I interact with this woman a lot, and my first question was why does he not get any of these things either for free or subsidized at the comissary? Her answer shocked me:
> "He's apparently in a private unit near someone high-up, and they are near a huge contractor area. The contractors get paid so much money that the local stores have jacked up the prices on everyday items to insane levels. He can't afford stuff that he could get in the dollar store back home--mouthwash, tissue packs, razors, you name it--it's all a fortune now for him."
> Remember, during the Gold Rush, fresh eggs sold for a dollar apiece ($23 in 2003).
> Letting our military get gouged is just disgraceful. Letting others profiteer off of them WHILE THEY ARE THERE is even more disgusting. The fact that they suffer like this guarding contractors who make ten times what they do is just the fecal icing on the shit cake. He can't get a fucking TOOTHBRUSH? That's insane. [emphasis in original --LRC]

Well, I'm not surprised when I hear mercenaries "contractors" whining that the troops mistreat them.
I'm surprised the troops don't just blow their heads off. Were I sitting on the jury hearing that case, I know I'd never vote to convict them.
Len on 07.27.05 @ 12:46 PM CST [link]
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## Where a "Turd" Can Blossom...

Daily Kos has an article about Rove’s secret affair.
But the Funnie is in the 410 (so far) comments:

> ”And another thing, WHO THE HELL CARES?!? (4.00 / 6)
> I do not care if Clinton gets a blow job from his internet. {sic} I do not care if Karl Rove is having an affair either. Can we please all collectively stop falling into this neanderthal mindset that we should condemn a public officials public perfomance based on their private lives? I don't care if Rove is having sex with tibetan yaks if he's a decent public offical.{sic}
> As you poitned {sic} out there's a million other things Karl Rove has done that are corrupt and evil and totally a matter of public interest. Rove revealing the name of his secret love is not even in the same league as him revealing the name of a CIA agent. Why this is news, I have no idea. Why this is FRONT PAGE ON DKOS news, I have even less of an idea.”

Followed by this comment:

> ”Best typo ever (4.00 / 6)
> I do not care if Clinton gets a blow job from his internet.
> My internet certainly doesn't do that.”

And this further follow-up comment:

> Mine Neither... (4.00 / 7)
> I want to know who his ISP is.

Karen on 07.27.05 @ 12:33 PM CST [link]
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## A Story of Kindness and Helping

Been meaning to write about this story that was in our Golf Digest Magazine about the extraordinary kindness and good heartedness of John Daly.
Grip it, rip it and share it by Bob Verdi (Golf World):

> "...In 1991 John Daly was nothing when he entered the PGA Championship at Crooked Stick GC, just outside Indianapolis. He wasn't yet Wild Thing whose "Grip It and Rip It" doctrine soon would captivate audiences worldwide. He was the ninth alternate in the field, replacing Nick Price. The rest, as they say, is hysteria. Daly won against all odds, fast-forwarding a career that has elevated him to star status.
> But during the first round in 1991, a violent storm enveloped Crooked Stick, and as spectators scurried toward shelter, one of them didn't make it. Tom Weaver was struck by lightning and died instantly. He was 39. He left behind a wife and two girls. Little could he have imagined how they would have been picked up by a mere golfer after that tragedy. "I felt I was almost responsible for him being killed," Daly recalls in a lengthy interview appearing in August's Golf Digest.
> So after receiving his $230,000 check, Daly dedicated $30,000 toward the education of Karen, 8 at the time, and Emily, who was 12. Daly was engaged to his second wife then and already was juggling debts and demons. But this rabid drinker, gambler and smoker also is a compulsive giver, and Daly says the donation was a no-brainer, which tells you a lot about what's beneath all those logos.
> ...
> Big news. [fastforward to this year]
> Karen would be graduating from Indiana University, where she majored in biology, with plans to become a doctor. And then Emily--now Emily Edmondson, of Oswego, Ill.--was going to earn her degree as a respiratory therapist from College of DuPage, not far from Chicago. Steve and Dee wanted Big John to know about the fruits of his largesse, and Daly was touched. "It's amazing what a little money can do when it's spent on the right reason," Daly said at last week's Cialis Western Open, where he admitted he's liking life more now and dwelling less on negatives...."

Karen on 07.27.05 @ 12:04 PM CST [link]
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## Gem o'the Day:

The only way I know how to support the troops is by going over there. All the chicken hawks back here who said, "Oh, Iraq is talking bad about us. They're going to threaten us" - look, if you really believe that, you leave your wife and three kids and go sign up for the Army or Marines and go over there and fight. Otherwise, shut your mouth.
--Paul Hackett, Democratic candidate for Congress from Ohio's 2nd Congressional District, Major, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, and Iraq War veteran (quoted in Salon)
Credit: via dKos
Well 101st Pissing-In-Your-Pants Keyboarders.... Why the fuck haven't you joined up?
Ah, I remember... Because Ranting Is Safer Than Enlisting:

Len on 07.27.05 @ 11:56 AM CST [link]
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## Rook Resumes...Ranting

Rook’s Rant has fixed his webpage after his encounter with the Vicious Attack Internets: Ok, Back Up And Running:

> ”As you can see, I am back. I lost the posts all the way back to July 15th. For those of you whom left comments about the passing of The GirlFriend™'s mother, thank you again.
> I really am disappointed that I lost those posts, but that is the chance I took when I decided to try the beta of Movable Type.
> I will be hacking the default template and restoring the old look. I just do not have the time to do so this evening. I have to get up and go to work in the morning. Rest assured that I am not going to do any intentional re-designing. I was happy with the old look.
> Update: I forgot to mention-I am allowing only authenticated comments, i.e., you have to log into TypeKey to be able to leave comments. Sorry, but I do not have spam protection installed at the moment. However, it really is not a big deal, go get yourself a free account with TypeKey.

But I can’t [won’t] leave a comment IF I must sign up and create some TypeKey account. This is not a "Diss" to Rook’s Rant…more a recognition of my severe Techno-dweeb limits.
Last time I tried something like this (on E-Blogger) just to leave a comment -- I ended up inadvertently creating a brand new E-Blogger WebPage in my name instead. So, if ya ever run across this mis-begotten Page and it’s single “test- post” you’ll know why it’s there. However, being a total Dweeb, I don’t remember how to access it, nor edit it, nor delete it.
There it sits --a forgotten little web-page all by it’s lonesome, Road-Kill on the Bloggie Highway.
Karen on 07.27.05 @ 11:49 AM CST [link]
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## Video Gag o'the Day....

This is absof*ckinglutely a work of genius: The iPod Flea.
Len on 07.27.05 @ 11:27 AM CST [link]
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## Attack 'o' Life and Attacks of Paper Wasps...

Lest you all think I’ve just been being a typical summer slacker -- I’ve been having Attacks 'o' Life™ around here.
Had loads of catching up to do after my Summer Cold and finally (Finally) got rid of the garage full of office furniture moved to the new office space. But that meant I had to do my Spring Cleaning in July. On the upside of all this work is that I get to put my car back into its spot in the nice organized garage.
*Ahhhhh…*
However, we (read husband) have “lost” the fittings and screws to reassemble the furniture. And now we (read ME) have to find them – even tho’ I’ve never seen them and wasn't here when the furniture was moved in – It’s, of course, ALL MY FAULT they are Missing!! I keep "looking for them" and maybe magically they will reappear from somewhere...Bleh!!!
But then, complete one task and yet another is on hand. The Attack of the Paper Wasps:
We have a small wooden deck that is most attractive to Paper Wasps and they have built numerous nests. But they are nasty little beasties and my daughter got stung this weekend. So, time to take care of the Paper Wasps and Destroy their nesting places. (And not get Stung myself. OUCH!)
There were 7-8 fairly large nests and more being built. So, Me against the Attack of the Paper Wasps…yet another summer screenplay in the making. LOL
But then, (and not because it’s less significant… but more this is the chronology of events) was the news that my Nephew, Ross, was in a serious (near fatal) car accident.
He is in a burn unit in a Houston hospital after being thrown out of the SUV in a roll-over car accident and then having the vehicle land on top of him, severely burning him with the car exhaust pipes. This was part of the e-mail update:

> He is going to be in the hospital for at least 10 days. He has a fractured hip injured pelvic joint that will heal without surgery but requires no load on his legs for 2-3 months---i.e., wheelchair once he can move. He has staples in his head where he was cut, a big gash in his hip, scrapes all over. Plus, a couple of deep burns from the exhaust pipes as he ended up under the truck after being ejected.
> He is in the burn unit at the hospital now as he is going to have skin graft surgery on his legs on Thursday. The good news is that he did not suffer any brain damage, but the bad news is that he recalls the horror of the incident in extreme detail and knows how close he came to death.

Apparently he was a passenger with two other friends, and they were exiting the highway. He’d unbuckled his belt to reach in the back seat for something, when the SUV (those top-heavy vehicles) hit the soft shoulder on the ramp and did a vehicle roll-over. He was thrown out the window and the vehicle rolled over his lower half and then ended up on top of his-waist and legs resulting in his further burn injuries.
Yikes!!! This has been a horrible event and we are hoping and wishing him a good recovery from this accident. [Once, many years ago, I had second degree burns on my leg and it was terribly painful, so I can imagine this is one of the worst parts. And skin grafts for burns sounds even more painful.]
So, I’ll be posting yet again, once I get caught up to things around here and things settle back down.
Karen on 07.27.05 @ 08:35 AM CST [link]
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## Geekiest. Comic. Strip. Ever.

Everybody loves Eric Raymond
And if your reaction is, "Who the f*ck is Eric Raymond?".... well, all I can say is, "It's a geek thang. If you have to ask, you'll never understand."
:-)
And for the rest of you who recognize the names of Eric Raymond, Richard Stallman, and Linus Torvalds.... Enjoy!
Len on 07.27.05 @ 07:33 AM CST [link]
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## Garry Trudeau can see the handwriting on the wall....

Further comment would be superfluous.
Len on 07.27.05 @ 07:07 AM CST [link]
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## From the "Life in the Bluff City" department....

Well, I'm not sure that the local convention an tourism board can call this a selling point, but I note (with no small degree of amusement) that when Slate wanted to do a head to head competition between insect repellants, searching for the best of the bunch, they conducted their tests in Memphis, legendary home of some of the world's most vicious mosquitoes.
Well, as mom used to say, everyone's got to be the best at something....
Len on 07.27.05 @ 06:18 AM CST [link]
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## Wait? Didn't these clowns get elected because they would be "better" at fighting terrorism?

Over at Slate, Fred Kaplan gives us a scathing review of the bAdministration's latest national security initiative: Say G-WOT? Terror attacks, Taliban resurgence, suicide bombs—obviously, it's time to change the slogan.

> One question comes to mind while reading the New York Times' report today that the Bush administration has decided to change the name of its counterterrorist campaign from "the global war on terrorism" to "the global struggle against violent extremism": Are these guys really this clueless?
> What else to make of the story's opening sentence:

> > The Bush administration is retooling its slogan for the fight against Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, pushing the idea that the long-term struggle is as much an ideological battle as a military mission, senior administration and military officials said Monday.

> Three subquestions arise just from the lead. First, this is the administration's solution to the spike in terrorist incidents, the Taliban's resurgence in Afghanistan, and the politico-military deterioration in Iraq—to retool the slogan?
> Second, the White House and the Pentagon are just now coming around to the idea that the struggle is as much ideological as military? This wasn't obvious, say, three or four years ago?
> Apparently not. Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker, the Times reporters who co-authored the article, note:

> > Administration and Pentagon officials say the revamped campaign has grown out of meetings of President Bush's senior national security advisers

> that began in January, and it reflects the evolution in Mr. Bush's own thinking nearly four years after the Sept. 11 attacks. [Italics added.]

It took four years for the president of the United States to realize that fighting terrorism has a political component? It took six months for his senior advisers to retool a slogan? We are witnessing that rare occasion when the phrase "I don't know whether to laugh or cry" can be uttered without lapsing into cliché.Send in the clowns.....
We could have done better.... we could have done much better than this.
Len on 07.27.05 @ 06:10 AM CST [link]
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## Thought for the Day:

But merely practicing curriculum-standard classical music and actually having demonstrable "classical training" are two very different things. The problem comes when "taking classical lessons," "getting accepted to a conservatory," and "working with a classical voice coach" are confused with concepts like "mastery," "virtuosity," and, yes, "training."
Take Alicia Keys, for example. A capable pianist, she studied classical piano for more than a decade as a youth and makes a point of taking C.F. Hanon's technique bible, The Virtuoso Pianist, on tour. Truly "classically trained," right? Well, maybe. A lot of people studied classical piano in their youth—by itself it means nothing. Imagine someone claiming pro baseball skill based on 10 years of Little League and high-school experience. And, while many advanced players use The Virtuoso Pianist to maintain technique, it's really just a building block. Familiarity with advanced material and techniques doesn't qualify as "training," either. Downbeat magazine ripped Keith Emerson a new one in a scathing review in the late '70s, posing the rhetorical question, "What can he do that any second-year conservatory student can't?" Ouch.
With that kind of face job always on the horizon, why do claims of classical training remain so prevalent? First of all, few artists are foolhardy enough to allow anyone to describe them as a true classical virtuoso. Stating a provable, publicity-worthy fact—that a headbanging guitarist negotiates Bach lute pieces in his spare time—is enough. Fans and journalists often do the embellishing on their own ("Dude, you can hear their classical training in that melody in the middle of 'I'm About To Go Postal' "). Which brings up the second reason pop stars use the term so widely: It lets people know that you are a serious musician, and not just a singing aerobics instructor.
"Oftentimes, people don't have the courage to let their music stand on its own," O'Riley says. "They have to pull out the 'classically trained' badge just to have some sense of pedigree."
--Tony Green
Len on 07.27.05 @ 05:56 AM CST [link]
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