Res Ipsa Loquitur

Our Trip

The rain held off Saturday until we had ridden all 3 coasters at SDC. By far the best was the new one, Wildfire. I wouldn't ride it until Mike rode it first by himself, but I eventually worked up enough nerve to try. It was great, steel track with tons of corkscrews and inverted loops. I give it 3 out of 5 screams....it's a great ride, just doesn't last very long.

Next we rode my old favorite, Fire In The Hole. It's been there about as long as the park, it's entirely inside a tall building, most of the ride is in complete darkness and there's even a big splash into water at the end. Totally hokey, but I still love it.

Then we hiked across the park and rode Thunderation. I give it 1 1/2 screams....the first part of the ride is the best, but it kinda ends with a whimper not a bang. You can ride backwards though, which I've done before. Interesting experience, but after the 2nd time I got really motion sick.

We were planning to then hit the water rides, but a thunderstorm came up so all the rides were closed. We had just gotten on a ride that was a hybrid coaster/water plunge when they closed the rides. Suited us just fine, last place I want to be during a thunderstorm is on a metal track submerged in water....on the tallest structure in the park. We decided to leave then, it looked like the rain was going to last all afternoon (it did) and headed back to the hotel to soak in the hot tub....a wise choice.

The one disappointment on the trip was we didn't get to go to the new park Celebration City. It's only open from 3 pm to around 10 pm or so, has 3 coasters including this really awesome wooden coaster and a major fireworks & laser show...but it started raining again later that evening so we didn't see any point in going. Maybe next time.

We did find a great restaurant, the Wooden Nickel, between Kimberling City and Branson. Their prime rib and NY strip were outstanding.

All in all, a fun trip. And the dogs didn't misbehave at all while we were gone.

Which was the best gift of all.

No Place Like Home

We're back...weather wasn't very cooperative (rain & more rain) so we decided to cut our trip a little short. We had a great time anyway, and thanks to everyone for their well wishes.

Full coaster report later, but right now I've unpacking and two very happy dogs to deal with.

Finally!

The last load of laundry is in the washer, suitcase is packed, ironing's done, house is reasonably clean....and I finally remembered where I left my sneakers. I even managed to get some of my homework done. Now, I think I should have just enough time to relax & enjoy a nice hot cuppa before Mike gets home.

We're loading up and heading to Branson for the weekend....planning to visit Steal-Your-Dollar Silver Dollar City and a few other places to check out their roller coasters and such. Our 3rd wedding anniversary is next week, so we thought we'd take a weekend for ourselves for a change. Not sure if we'll have internet access, so you may not hear from us until Sunday. There's supposed to be access at the hotel, but who knows.

My daughter's supposed to come over and dog-sit, so Sassy & Sollie won't have to go to the Bad Place (the kennel). We'll see how that works out. We may not have any furniture left when we get back. They've seen me packing, so they've been underfoot giving me the sad eyes treatment all afternoon. I almost feel guilty.

But not quite.

Battle Cry

That sounds like something stupid I'd say. Thanks for the link, Michele.

New Site

Have you seen Allah Is In The House? LMAO

Alright, who's the wise ass responsible?

(Oops. Where's my manners? Link via Laurence. My apologies.)

Election Year Themes

Interesting article in today's WaPost about how Howard Dean's campaign is basically based on attracting Bush haters to combat the problem of uniting a fragmented party. I think the author's correct, that is what Dean is trying to do....and I don't think it's going to work.

We ran into an old friend of Mike's last night at dinner...a self-described Libertarian Centrist with Democratic leanings, whatever the hell that is....and during the at times passionate discussion he & Mike had about politics I heard several themes that are typical of Dean supporters. One, Bush is apparently too stupid to wipe his own butt. He only implements policies made by others because he's not smart enough to plan anything for himself. He was so vehement about this that at one point Mike jokingly asked him if he'd been reading the Democratic Underground. (No link....my site, my censorship choices)

Second, hates Bush with a fiery passion. Everything Bush has done is wrong. Tax cuts have helped no one. There's too much business going overseas and it should be made illegal to move a business overseas to cut costs. (Isolationism & protectionism worked so well in the past. /sarcasm) Third, Howard Dean is our new saviour, look at what he's done in Vermont, and he is going to easily defeat Bush in the general election.

I happen to think he's wrong on all counts, but it was interesting to hear how his deep dislike of Bush colored his opinions....which is, I think, the basis of the support for Dean. He's got that Barry Goldwater appeal. Popular among the fringes, but not electable.

"He's not running a campaign, he's running a movement," writes Natasha C. on the Dean Web site, if the New York Times is to be believed. "These are protest-size crowds, these are not politics-size crowds, and that makes a critical difference," Ms. C. asseverates. Indeed it does. Join the first protest of the 21st century. The only problem this protest movement faces is that there is almost nothing to protest.

Exactly. And as this author points out, the Dems are severely fragmented among the fringes. You gots your feminists, your anti-war peaceniks, your environmentalists, and so on ad nauseum....but no candidate that appeals to all of them or to the moderates in the party. You know, that large mass in the middle that actually votes. So far, I've not seen a Dem candidate that I thought had a snowball's chance in the general election.

Of course there's always Wesley Clark, whose stance on anything is largely unknown. Now there's a great idea for a campaign....Wesley Clark, the Mercenary Mysterion candidate. He's like the prize in a box of Cracker Jacks....you know, you're hoping for something cool like a decoder ring but find upon opening it a list of really lame knock-knock jokes.

Going to be an interesting election year.

Blaster Author Arrest Planned

An arrest is expected later today of the alleged author of the MSBlaster worm...an 18 yr. old kid.

A witness reportedly saw the teen testing the infection and called authorities, the official said.

Little bastard.

NK Test Threat

North Korea is claiming now that it will test a nuke to prove that it has them. Hey, smoke 'em if ya got 'em I always say.

But you might want to be careful what you wish for. It's those unintended consequences that'll always bite you in the ass.

Got Nothin'

After homework and getting ready for class this morning & a court hearing this afternoon, not to mention feeling like something the cat dragged in, I got nothing this morning. You'd already figured that out though, hadn't you? Sorry. Maybe this afternoon will be better.

On a brighter note, after I make it through today, I'm off until next Tuesday. I may just sleep the entire time....except for the 2 days Mike & I plan to spend in Branson sampling their roller coaster selection....and homework, laundry, cleaning up the mess the dogs make while we're gone, etc., etc., etc.

I'm tired just thinking about it.

Warning

Got some weird emails while I was gone to class that Mike sezs look like someone's spoofing my email address and attaching the new & improved SoBig virus. So if you get an email purporting to be from me with an attachment, delete it....I don't know any of y'all well enough to exchange attachments anyway.

Sorry for any inconvenience, but I'm not the asswipe that's doing it.

Wednesday Hell

I gotta head out in a few minutes, back to B'ville for my Wednesday night class. I have a killer headache....one of those where the pain pulses with every heartbeat, you know the kind. Oy. I just want to go to bed.

And Sollie just brought me the tv remote. Guess he wanted me to turn it back to the Cartoon Network.

I tell you, pugs have no appreciation for classic movies at all.

Huckabee Not Running

Our Gov. Huckabee has announced that he will not run against Sen. Blanche Lincoln in the next election....says he doesn't want to commute between here & DC.

Asa Hutchinson has also said he won't run, which leave us with no viable Republican candidate.....so far.

C'mon Adam, y'all gonna have to get to work over there. None of us want another 4 years of that Hillary wannabe what we gots now.

Splendid As Always

Scott has compiled a few numbers of his own for the media.

Heh.

Welcome Back!

Yay! Matt's back.

Welcome home, neighbor!

Run Free & Die

ALF has committed another act of animal cruelty.

An animal-rights group has claimed responsibility for releasing about 10,000 mink from a fur farm near Seattle.

Now that's intelligent isn't it....releasing captivity-bred animals into the wild that have no freaking clue how to survive. Most were recaptured, but for the 1,000 or so that weren't, well....I'm sure the predators enjoyed the tasty snack.

Idiots.

The Big Fat Lie

Captain Holly of the Warren confirms what I'd suspected....media reports of postwar casualties in Iraq are a big fat lie.

Apparently, Americans aren't being killed fast enough to suit the Left, so CBS has included all troop deaths in the total of Iraq casualties since May 1st. The number of combat deaths has now been augmented with deaths from accidents, heat exhaustion, and heart attacks. While being killed in an auto accident is not any more pleasant than being killed by an RPG blast, there is a key difference between the two, and honest people will admit that.

I think it's high time someone called them on it.

"Teaching" Cultural Diversity

Reading about this reminded me of a class I saw while searching for a replacement for one of my computer classes that got cancelled, "Exploring Cultural Diversity". [Warning: link goes to annoying .pdf file] It purports to be designed for "all students with a desire to understand culture and the value of cultural diversity in an increasingly complex global environment". The course outline includes such diverse things as defining one's personal culture; African-American, Native American, Jewish, Gay/lesbian cultures and "Regionally represented non-Christian religions"; old age and the physically handicapped; and "Welfare".

I'm not too sure what "welfare culture" is, but I'm guessing it would involve study of the evolution of mullets and trailer parks. I thought it sounded like great fun, especially the part about "Appropriate and thematic artwork must be a part of your portfolio" but Mike wouldn't let me take it....something about my getting kicked out of school or something like that.

Heh.

This & That

---The 15th Annual Mule Jump is set for Oct. 11th in beautiful Pea Ridge...mark your calendars now. We went last year more or less as a joke and had a surprisingly good time....we're planning to take Bubs this year.

--NWACC, the little community college which I attend, reports that enrollment is up 20%....unfortunately parking spaces, as I can attest, are not. My instructor said yesterday that the administration claimed that there were not more students enrolled than there were parking spaces. She wasn't buying that either, but she did say the administration had converted 20 faculty spaces into student spaces over the summer....which is in my experience an unusual action for college administration.

--Speaking of classes, I start my very first ever programming class today--Beginning BASIC. I'm kinda excited about that. I was poking about online last night and ran across this site, followed a link to an article he'd written about how to be a hacker, and found his recommendation that Python was a good beginning programming language for neophytes like me who have very little programming experience. What do youse guys think? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

French Shame

I have been particularly shocked to read about the heat-related deaths in France. First, I suspect many of the deaths could have been prevented.....all of us who live in the South know endless ways to beat the heat. I never lived in a house with air conditioning until my kids were half-grown, and we survived just fine.

But even more disturbing to me has been the French cavalier attitude towards their elderly relatives.

Meanwhile, the media continue to stress the faults of the authorities, pointing out that half of the heat victims were people older than age 85. Many had been alone in stifling apartments while their families left for vacation.

Pardon my American ignorance, but that is not the fault of the authorities. Leaving elderly relatives "alone in stifling apartments" while one goes on vacation is so culturally foreign to me that I can't even begin to understand how someone could do that. In my world, we take care of our own....from cradle to grave. And the elderly are still valued members of our society....repositories of vast knowledge, to be respected and cared for.

And yes, I understand that this is one of the inevitable consequences of a welfare state....no personal responsibility for one's actions. But IMHO, in a "civilized" society, there is no excuse for this:

Newspaper reports yesterday said that between 300 and 400 bodies had not been claimed outside Paris.

More than 100 bodies lay in refrigerated trucks outside a city-run warehouse in the southern suburb of Ivry-sur-Seine, reports said. City officials vowed to bury them, whether or not families claim them.

What kind of people come home from a month of frolicking in sand and surf, find Grandma's died from heatstroke and don't even bother to claim her body? I just don't get it.

Barbarians.

Today's Quote

Today's quote comes to us from Fox, commenting on its decision to drop its lawsuit against Al Franken.

"It's time to return Al Franken to the obscurity he's normally accustomed to," a Fox spokeswoman later told CNN.

Narf.

Indymedia Threat

Michele's been threatened with a shutdown by the Indymedia loonies. You know, as a Zionazi filthy jewpropgandist [sic], she gets all the good birthday presents.

I may have to convert.

Expect Considerable Delays

Mike just called to let me know traffic's a bit backed up on I-540....he'd been on the road long enough that he should've already been at work, but was not even a third of the way there. Road construction has the interstate down to one lane at the busiest intersection on the entire road, traffic is backed up for miles and isn't moving. Since this is back-to-school day for me, I gots to get around and hit the road soon.

Bleh!

The World As Battlefield

Mark Steyn makes some excellent points, as usual, in today's WashTimes column.

The suicide bomber is a symbol of weakness, of a culture so comprehensively failed that what ought to be its greatest resource — its people — is instead as disposable as a firecracker.

As history shows, this strategy didn't work too well for the Japanese. Or to look a bit farther back, it is also analogous to certain Plains Indian tribes practice of counting coup. [Disclaimer: I am certainly no authority on Plains Indian culture, so if I'm wrong, y'all feel free to correct me.] The basic draw is the same....strike a blow against the enemy, die and your name and "bravery" will live on forever....and you'll be amply rewarded in the afterlife. Not hard to understand the allure for people whose life sucks anyway or who are religious zealots. After a certain point, you start running out of effective participants.

That's one of the two problems with this battle strategy. After you run through zealots and the dispossessed, it's difficult to attract new converts. I mean, "Join our cause and die" doesn't sound particularly attractive to most ordinary people. The other problem is that it's only effective against an enemy not willing to sustain the relatively few losses this method can impose.

The terrorists watch CNN and the BBC and, understandably, they figure that in Iraq the United States, Britain, the United Nations and all the rest will do what most people do when they run up against someone deranged: Back out of the room slowly. They're wrong. There's no choice. You kill it here, or the next generation of suicide bombers will be on buses in Rotterdam, Manchester, Lyons, and blowing up the U.N. Building in Manhattan. This is the battlefield.

Precisely. There is no peaceful coexistence with this particular ideology. Cut 'em if they stand and shoot 'em if they run....or die yourself.

And the sooner we all understand this and act accordingly, the sooner this world war will end.

The Circus That Wasn't

Due to a miscommunication, we didn't pick Bubs up until late yesterday afternoon. So we decided to take in the county fair and postpone taking him to the advertised accompanying circus until today. Bubs was all excited, doing his dance of happiness & high-fiving me all the way across the parking area and through the front gate. We were supposed to meet my daughter there, so we were hanging around inside the gate, waiting for her and taking in the sights.

A fifth-rate acrobat act attracted our attention as we waiting....I've done better aerial stunts on a grapevine when I was a kid....and there was an adjacent pony ride. It slowly dawned on us as we watched. This was the "circus" that had been hyped in all the fair ads.

Ahem. We were, shall we say, underwhelmed. At least there weren't any clowns.

But my daughter & her date finally arrived and we did the fair with style....two rides on the big carousel, a ride down the tall superslide with his favorite aunt, a couple of games of skee ball, the purchase of a cowboy hat complete with a star and a pony ride. He desperately wanted to ride the "choo-choo", but you must be at least this tall to ride....and he was a few inches shy. He was also a bit too little to ride the huge gondola-type Ferris wheel, for which we were all grateful. He had a blast, kept us all in stitches with his antics....and we were all glad Mike & I had invested $5 in a child's safety harness with leash. He was trying to run six ways at once.

He started yawning after a couple of hours, so we made our way back to the gate....he wasn't ready to leave of course, but we finally convinced him that it was time to go home and see Sollie. As we walked out of the gate, he raised his tired little head off my shoulder and waved at all the rides. "Bye-bye" he said sadly.

Can't wait til next year.

Random Linkage

--Steve's been having fun installing XP on his old ME system. I'll stop snickering eventually.

--David's got a beautiful post about where he lives...and gave me the nicest compliment I think I've ever had. Sweetie, if I get there first, I'll leave the light on for you...assuming I make it of course.

--Patrick's lost dog finally made it home, but now he's a sick puppy. Go give him your good wishes for a speedy recovery.

--And Margi could use some of the same, since she's having some complications from a tooth removal. Is there anything more miserable?

And since both my daughter and my husband said I was cranky today, I think I'll go to bed.

Another good night's sleep and I'll be right as rain.

Sneak Peak

Rodger's managed to find a sneak peak at the new Windows 2004....looks like they're going back to the old 98 style format.

Go check it out.

Well Duh

The investigation into the recent UN bombing reveals them folks ain't too bright.

U.S. investigators suspect the bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad was an inside job and are questioning Iraqi employees and guards, many of whom were linked to Saddam Hussein's security service, a top American official said Friday.

Gee, you reckon?

Most of the U.N. security guards at the compound had been placed there by Saddam's security service before the war and reported on U.N. staff movements at the Canal Hotel, headquarters for U.N. inspectors looking for weapons of mass destruction.

So the security "lapse" which allowed this to happen was our fault?

I don't think so.

Wiped Out

I'm still wiped out and brain dead this morning. Mike, who's taking a comp day today, tried to let me sleep in by getting up with the dogs. Unfortunately, the dogs decided that meant I was dead or something and became quite upset....and kept sneaking into the bedroom and pawing frantically at my side of the bed trying to make me get up. They were overjoyed when I finally did. I was not. It's great to be loved, just not at 4:30 am.

Anyway, now that they're settled down, I'm going back to bed. For your viewing pleasure until I become coherent again, here's a photo of Sollie.

Who could stay mad at a face like that?

Friday Five

1. When was the last time you laughed? Yesterday in court....wish I could tell you why, but it is forbidden.

2. Who was the last person you had an argument with? A DHS bureaucrat on Tuesday. I won.

3. Who was the last person you emailed? Keith, who was kind enough to email me a link to a very interesting article on the latest in the SCO v. IBM fight. Keith's such a great guy, I'll be glad when his blog break ends. Hint, hint.

4. When was the last time you bathed? Y'all gettin' kinda personal, ain't you? That would be nunya....as in none of ya damn business.

5. What was the last thing you ate? Eggs & grits & rye toast, our favorite breakfast.

Home Again

Made it home around 7 pm last night....good guys won, but after 4 hrs driving time and 8+ hrs. trial, I was teetotally asswhipped. Best line heard in court yesterday:

Mr. [Attorney]: Your Honor, I've been puttin' up with Mrs. [attorney] leading her witnesses all day but...

Judge: Mr. [Attorney], I really don't care WHAT you've been putting up with. If you have an objection, make it.

Heh heh. I _really_ like this judge.

Back To the Salt Mines

Another day of trial work ahead. We're hoping to finish today but since yesterday got cut short, I dunno. It's going to be a long day I fear. I got to listen to criminal arraignments yesterday before we started, and heard the best speech of the day....directed at a scruffy little man wearing a dirty sleeveless t-shirt.

"Sir. This is court. We wear shirts in court. Shirts have sleeves. I do not know what you are wearing, but it is not a shirt. Do not come back into my courtroom unless you are wearing a shirt."

I like this judge's style.

International House of Chicken

Some of the UN workers in Iraq want to pick up their toys and go running home to mommy.

Some United Nations staffers in Iraq demanded to leave over safety fears yesterday, a diplomatic source said as the organization's presence in Baghdad was plunged into confusion.

Whassa matta for you? We've been getting bombed like that for years, as has Israel.....THAT certainly didn't seem to both y'all much.

U.N. officials were trying to figure out how to protect workers while keeping a presence in Iraq the day after a truck bomb demolished the organization's Baghdad offices, killing at least 20 - including chief U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.

It's pretty simple really. See, that internationally approved French method of turning tail and running doesn't really work. Whatcha gotta do is get some guns, a few boxes of ammo....maybe a few RPG's and such....and load 'em up. Point the round end at them what's shooting at you and pull the trigger. I know, it's the simplistic American method, but hey. It works.

Officials believe al Qaeda terrorists and Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party thugs are going after relief organizations and other "soft" targets to disrupt rebuilding efforts and undermine the U.S. occupation.

Not to mention the biggest factor. They don't shoot back.

Weapons. Supporting occupation and rebuilding of nations since the beginning of time.

Happy 1st!

Aaron is celebrating his first blog-iversary AND he's just become a large mammal. Go wish him a happy one.

Boring

Ok, yeah, now this is just getting boring. While it was fun and all for a while watching my anti-virus software delete all those little viruses, they can stop now. I've gotten about 20 so far since I've been home. At least I know I'm not the only one.

BTW, in case you hadn't noticed, there's a couple of Windows critical updates released today you might just want to download this evening in your spare time.

Forewarned is forearmed.

Short & Sad Day

Today's portion of my trial only lasted until noon...but not for a good reason. One of the nicest, sweetest ladies with whom I used to work lost her husband Sunday to a heart attack. Judge allowed us to leave early today to attend his funeral. I didn't know her husband very well, but I just think the world of her and her daughter, and was very saddened by their loss. They are, as you can imagine, devastated.

Nothing much I could do for them except pay my respects and add them to my prayers....which I did. The place was packed and unbearably hot....I ended up helping a proud young father cool off his tiny little baby boy by fanning away while Dad held him close to the air conditioning vent.

You know me, if there's a baby around, I'll be playing with it sooner or later. And this one was a real cutie.

Thanks For Playing

To the jackass(es) who were kind enough to send me at least 5 copies of the SoBig.f virus, I regret to inform you that I have anti-virus software and I'm not afraid to use it. So sorry, you lose...but hey, thanks for playing.

I'd hunt you down & kill you, but it's just too damn hot.

Better luck next time.

Heart Attack

Yahoo's trying to give me a heart attack.

Estimated retail pricing for the Office SKUs is unchanged from the current Office XP edition. The Student & Teacher Edition will be $449, Standard Edition $399 and Professional Edition $499. Upgrades are typically $50 to $70 less.

Slight typo there folks. The Student & Teacher Edition of Office, which I use, will be around $179.

They 'bout made me choke on my biscuit.

Not At My Desk

I've a two day trial starting today, conveniently located up by the Kansas-Oklahoma border, so posting will be light to non-existent for the next couple of days....unless of course everyone settles first thing this morning.

Hey, it could happen. Odds are slim to none, so there's still a chance.

Worm Season?

What is this, worm season? Now there's another one, SoBig.F, a variant of the old SoBig bug. Comes in an email attachment that's either .pif or .scr.

And something called "White Hat" shut down Air Canada today.

Geez.

UN Cluebat

The U.N. got hit today with a very large Cluebat^TM.

A huge explosion that may have been the work of a homicide bomber ripped through U.N. headquarters in Baghdad Tuesday, killing at least 20 people and injuring scores of others...."Nothing can excuse this act of unprovoked and murderous violence against men and women who went to Iraq for one purpose only: to help the Iraqi people recover their independence and sovereignty, and to rebuild their country as fast as possible, under leaders of their own choosing," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a statement.

No fucking duh. It's about damn time you people got a clue. It's a shame it took something like this to wake you idiots up to what Bush has been trying to tell you all along. They're not just anti-American. They're anti-whomever is not their particular brand of radical Islam.

In a later address, Bush said the blast reflected the desperation of Saddam Hussein's followers and called the bombers "murderers."

"The civilized world will not be intimidated and these terrorists will not determine the future of Iraq … they are testing our will, it will not be shaken."

World War began a while back....and it ain't gonna be over for a while yet.

Dickinson Day

That would be Emily, not Angie. I just spent an hour assailing the walls of asinine bureaucratic policy. "But it's our policy." "Policy is just rules, and the law beats rules every time." "But...but....it's policy." *sigh* It was much like violently attacking a plush.

But ya know, once you get a hole started in the seam and start pulling out great handfuls of stuffing, them plushes become downright cooperative.

I am making progress.

Valuable Service

I'm off to a criteria staffing in Jay, whatever the hell that is, conveniently scheduled for noon. (Hey, who needs lunch? Low Blood Sugar Satan does, that's who. Shut up. I said I'd grab lunch on the way. Go away.)

Anyway, while I'm gone, head on over to Steve's. He's volunteering to perform, free of charge, a valuable service to meet all your Nigerian spam needs.

Whatta guy!

al Queada Claim

I know this is yesterday's news, the al-Queda claiming they took down the powergrid....but I was a bit busy with work yesterday so I'm just now getting to it.

"A communiqué attributed to Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the power blackout that happened in the U.S. last Thursday, saying that the brigades of Abu Fahes Al Masri had hit two main power plants supplying the East of the U.S., as well as major industrial cities in the U.S. and Canada, 'its ally in the war against Islam (New York and Toronto) and their neighbors.'

Did you now? And how did you do it?

The Brigades say that they cannot reveal how they did it, because they will probably have to use the same method again soon.

Uh....yeah. Riiiiiight. The old "Secret Takedown" method. Gotcha.

The communiqué read: 'let the criminal Bush and his gang know that the punishment is the result of the action, the soldiers of God cut the power on these cities, they darkened the lives of the Americans as these criminals blackened the lives of the Muslim people in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine.

You've been reading this again, haven't you?

The Americans lived a black day they will never forget. They lived a day of terror and fear… a state of chaos and confusion where looting and pillaging rampaged the cities, just like the capital of the caliphate Baghdad, and Afghanistan and Palestine were. Let the American people take a sip from the same glass.'

"Terror and fear"? More like party at Times Square for the most part wasn't it? "Looting and pillaging"? Dude, that was in Canada, not the US....don't feel too bad, I'm not very good at geography either. "Sip from the same glass"? Eeeewwww! That's like so totally unsanitary.

"The authors of the communiqué said that the strikes aimed at 'hitting the major pillar of the U.S. economy (the Stock Exchange)… [and] the UN, which is opposed to Islam, and is based in New York. It is a message to all the investors that the U.S. is no longer a safe country for their money, knowing that the U.S. economy greatly relies on the trust of the investor…'

Not exactly.....the market closed at a 14 month high yesterday.

"The communiqué mentioned that some economists said the blackout in the U.S. and Canada would cost the U.S. Treasury no less than ten billion U.S. dollars and in order to 'break the hearts of U.S. officials, just know that the cost paid by the Moujahideen to sabotage the power plants was a mere seven thousand dollars. Die of sorrow!'

Now that was a helluva expensive squirrel, wasn't it? Die of shame!

"The communiqué ended with: 'we tell the Muslims that this is not the awaited strike, but it is called the war of skirmishes (to drain the enemy), and that the American snakes are enormous and need to be consumed and weakened to be destroyed.

Translation: we're getting our asses kicked.

We tell the people of Afghanistan and Kashmir that the gift of Sheikh Osama bin Laden is on its way to the White House; then the gift of Al Aqsa, and do we know what is the gift of Al Aqsa, where and when? The answer is what you are seeing!'

Oh, you bought a whole herd of squirrels, I get it. They're already in place all over the White House lawn, just waiting for the signal from their leader.

You did know that he's really a double agent, didn't you?

*ahem*

Another Capture

The former Iraqi vice-president, Taha Yassin Ramadan, has been captured.

Taha Yassin Ramadan, Saddam Hussein's former vice president, has been captured by U.S. Kurdish allies in northern Iraq, U.S. and Kurdish officials said on Tuesday.

"He was detained in Mosul as a result of cooperation between the political parties and residents," Adel Murad of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) told Reuters in Baghdad.

Captured by the Kurds, how delicious....considering what he did to them.

Ramadan is alleged to have been involved in crimes against humanity for his role in suppressing Kurdish rebellion in the north in the 1980s and against the Shi'ite revolt in southern Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War.

He's also the guy who called the Saudi foreign minister a "loser", "a minion and a lackey" for suggesting that Saddam step down. I smell a little projection here.

Ramadan, who is in his 60s and originally from the Mosul region, was one of the most hawkish members of Saddam's inner circle and one of the only surviving plotters of the 1968 coup that brought the Baath Party to power.

How did he survive in Saddam's "inner circle" for so long? Pot. Kettle. Black.

And now he's a loser too. Karma's funny that way.

Osama Alive?

A new tape claims Osama & Omar are alive and well.

"I would like to bring the good tidings to Muslims everywhere that Sheik Osama bin Laden is well, very well, and that Mullah Omar is also alive," the voice said.

The voice went on to say that the sex change operations went well, and Osama and Omar report that they now "feel so pretty."

Presidential Spam

I just got spammed by the President's webmaster announcing today's 7 a.m. launch of their re-designed Bush-Chaney '04 website.....a spam so nice I got it twice.

Not that I'm complaining mind you....I'm glad to see someone gets it.

Bloggers are helping to shape today’s political discourse and how the Internet is used in political campaigns. As an important voice among online activists we wanted you to be one of the first to know about the launch of the Bush-Cheney ’04 Web site at www.GeorgeWBush.com.

And there's banners and buttons available for download, like this:

Though it would've been nice if they linked to the website instead of just being a .gif....or maybe I downloaded it wrong, I dunno. (Ok now it does. Thanks Dean)

Still, it was a mass mailing of unsolicited information....and that cracks me up. First time I've ever responded to a spam.

UPDATE: I scooped the Master by more than an hour. Take that, PuppyBlender Boy

Another DOS Attack

I found this notice when I visited my local NBC website this afternoon:

This website was inaccessable for most of the day Monday as the result of a denial-of-service attack against WorldNow.com, a supplier of website software and hosting services to the television indusrty.

Don't you jackasses have anything better to do?

Random Linkage

--Tony wants help picking a new blog name.

--Jim, if I promise to not post any photos of clowns after we take Bubs to the circus next week, will you do another Sgt. Steele installment?

--This blog freakin' cracked me up. I hope the poster does return in September as promised.

--There's always good tales from the ER to be found here.

--Finally, for a great Cubano perspective on things, go read Babalu....always something interesting going on there.

Thought For the Day

Today's thought is brought to us courtesy of Acidman, a frequent contributor to my ever-increasing vocabulary.

"Just because a cat has her kittens in the oven don't make 'em biscuits."

And that's all I got to say about that.

Homer's Power Failure

The latest on the investigation of the big power outage is that the cause may have been that Homer was asleep at the switch.

A failure to contain problems with three transmission lines in northern Ohio just south of Cleveland was the likely trigger of the nation's biggest power blackout, a leading investigator says.

Alarm systems that might have alerted engineers to the failed lines were broken, according to FirstEnergy Corp., the Akron, Ohio-based utility that officials said owned at least two of the three lines.

And, the alarms that were working may have been ignored.

At the Midwest ISO, spokeswoman Mary Lynn Webster said she did not know when workers noticed the FirstEnergy lines were disabled and what, if anything, they did about it.

Webster said the pool copes with "thousands of alarms every minute," and that the failed lines weren't in areas most prone to problems.

D'oh.

Saturday Fun

Bubs loved the carnival at the Tontitown Grape Festival. He was so excited by all the lights and commotion that he did this little dance all the way from the car to the gate. It was much like the scarecrow's dance in The Wizard of Oz, if the scarecrow had been on crack. When we got up to the entrance, he stopped, gasped, put his hand over his mouth then yelled "WOW!!!"

We walked around, looking at everything. Every few seconds he would squeal, point, laugh and shout "WOW!!!" It was hilarious. We finally found the merry-go-round, one of two rides there he was big enough to ride. Being a true Arkansas hillbilly, he picked a pink pig on which to ride. Round & round we went, him yelling "Yee-haw!" and me rediscovering the joys of motion sickness. He was beaming from ear to ear, yelling at Pa who was taking pictures from the sidelines every time we came around. "Pa! Yee-haw!"

Then we stood in line forever for the Ferris wheel. He loved it. We went up up up, then down down down. "Whee!!" he kept yelling. When we stopped on the top, he pointed upwards. "Look!! Stars!!" He pointed down. "See!! Pa!!"

We left after riding the Ferris wheel, it was still so bloody hot we were all dripping wet with sweat...and there wasn't anything else he could ride. He wasn't ready to leave, but then, I doubt that he would've ever been ready to leave. And he was getting tired....he's slept so soundly that I don't think he's hardly even moved all night.

County fair starts next week, complete with a bigger carnival AND a circus. I know what we'll be doing next weekend.

Whee! Ma needs to get some Dramamine.

Yeesh!

Just got back from a round trip to Harrison to pick up Bubs, who's been staying with my sister this week....dropped him off at my daughter's for the night. We'll have him tomorrow night so we can take him to the Tontitown Grape Festival....spaghetti dinner and merry-go-rounds. A winning combination I'm sure.

And found out right before I left to get him that the trial I've set for next week isn't going to be in beautiful downtown Jay, Oklahoma. It's been moved to beautiful downtown Miami, Oklahoma....which is about a 2-3 hr. drive from here, depending on the traffic. And the trial should last for 2 days.

Wonderful. Now I've gotta see what kind of hotels they have in Miami, cuz I'm _not_ making that roundtrip two days in a row.

If only it were Florida instead of Oklahoma.

Et Tu, Linux?

Linux is rapidly gaining equal hacking status with Microsoft.

In mid-March, someone hacked the primary file servers hosted by the GNU Project, the group which supports the development of many of the components in the Linux operating system, the group acknowledged Wednesday. It warned that the attacker may have inserted malicious code into the free software available for download, including Linux, and posted a set of hashes that users can check against to determine if what they retrieved is clean.

You can get more info from Gnu here if you think you might be affected. Though the hack happened in March, it wasn't discovered until late last month.

Trojan horses, not just for Windows anymore.

Power Outage Update

Bloomie is on Fox saying that they expect power to start coming back on in NYC in a few hours. There were no fires, he said, just a power overload that rolled down the Northeast power grid, knocking other power stations off-line.

Geez, now he's recommending again that people accept rides from strangers. Yeah, let's see him do that without his bodyguards. He also said that there's no one stuck in elevators in any building in NYC.

I'm like the Fox News guy....I think he's full of shit.

Power Grids

I did a little searching to see which power grid we're on, which you can do here, and found that we're also on the Eastern grid....you know the one that's having outages now.

I hope it doesn't spread any further. But if it does, shouldn't be too bad here. Weather's not too hot, currently 86 degrees. Plenty of Gatorade, water and food. Gas stove and charcoal grill. Oil lamps, candles and flashlights. Laptop batteries fully charged (like the DSL won't go down. Right) Plenty of guns and ammo for all. Large, very protective dog.

I think we're all set.

Major Power Outage

There's been a major power outage on the East Coast & Canada....cause unknown.

A major power blackout hit several major cities in the Northeast, the Midwest and Canada late Thursday afternoon, knocking out electricity to millions of people in New York, Toronto, Detroit, Cleveland and elsewhere.

There's also reports of a fire at the ConEd plant in New York, and also fires in the Bronx and Brooklyn.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Fox News is reporting that authorities are saying there's no evidence that this is terrorist related, but that's it's a "natural" occurrence. Whatever that means. I'm getting the impression that one power plant went down, which overloaded another in the grid and brought it down....and so it went across the power grid.

And Another One Gone

President Bush announced today that we've captured another high-ranking al-Queda terrorist.

He was identified as Riduan Isamuddin — also known as Hambali. He was said to be al-Qaida's chief representative and operational planner in Southeast Asia.

Linked to the Bali bombings, suspected of the Jakarta bombings, connected to the 9/11 murders, the list goes on and on. But he's in _our_ custody now.

TTFN sucka. Let's see what you know.

Wanna Make Something Of It?

I am, it seems, highly cynical (8), angry (7) and aggressive (9), with a total hostility score of 24. (Link via the even more hostile Bogieblog)

Now I'm going to fight my way to the bedroom to take my old lady's afternoon nap....heaven help the telemarketer that calls and wakes me up.

_That_ really makes me mad.

Uninvited Guests

I went out to turn off the sprinkler and discovered these 2, among about 15 or so assorted others, enjoying a refreshing shower at our expense.

What do they think this is, a Holiday Inn Express? Next thing you know, they'll be wanting little towels.

Meth Baby Trial Begins

Trial began today for a California woman accused of killing her 3 month old baby.

A woman accused of killing her infant son with methamphetamine-tainted breast milk lay sobbing on the floor as others cleaned up evidence of her drug use before calling 911, a witness testified in the first day of the woman's murder trial....The Riverside County coroner originally labeled the cause of Jacob's death sudden infant death syndrome; however, a toxicology report later showed the boy had overdosed on methamphetamine, a highly addictive and illegal stimulant.

Too bad she's only facing life in prison.

Unbelievable

The Chinese have sucessfully created human/rabbit embryos. (Link via Susanna)

That's just what we don't need....more people who breed like rabbits.

Good Old Beeb

The BBC has undertaken the perilous task of explaining how a US sting operation works.

Marc Powers, a partner with the New York law firm of Reed Smith, told BBC News Online that government officers had a variety of options open to them.

"Agents are permitted to engage in different types of deceit and pretence and artifice to find out whether a target has a predisposition to commit a crime," he said.

I smell a faint air of disapproval here....isn't quite sporting and all that. But the Beeb likes this bit from a US Supreme Court opinion so much they quoted it twice:

Justice White also wrote: "When the government's quest for convictions leads to the apprehension of an otherwise law-abiding citizen who, if left to his own devices, likely would have never run afoul of the law, the courts should intervene."

True. But I want to see this guy claim entrapment.

In the spring of 2002, Lakhani met CW in a New Jersey hotel and discussed what weapons Lakhani could provide and that CW represented a Somali group who initially wanted one missile for a jihad involving a plane and "hitting people over here."

During their talks, Lakhani said Osama bin Laden "did a good thing" and commented that "the Americans are bastards."

Right bastards we are, as he will soon see. Of course, if it hadn't been for the Good Old Beeb, things might've turned out differently.

Top Justice Department officials intended to keep Lakahni's arrest hush-hush and "quickly flip" him, so that he could serve as their undercover agent and penetrate al Qaeda with the promise of arms, the magazine said.

But after the feds learned the BBC was about to report the arrest, they dropped the plan to recruit Lakhani and drew up criminal charges instead.

Whose side are they on anyway?

Mutant Worm

A variant of the MSBlaster worm has been found in the wild.

The worm, which has not yet been named, is a near doppelganger of MSBlast, with only slight changes. The name of the primary worm-carrier file--MSBLAST.EXE in the original--is now TEEKIDS.EXE. The variation's code has also been compressed with FSG rather than UPX, and a new string of text buried within the code takes different potshots at both Microsoft and anti-virus developers.

According to Symantec, there's two variants, B & C, that do much the same thing as the original....hijack your computer and bomb the Microsoft update site. Variations on a theme, if you will.

Like my son, who's been struggling to remove this worm, said, whoever designed this needs to die.....slowly.

Jerks.

Evil Kitty

Since I got nothing else to talk about, here's a photo of our cat:

She's a lean, mean, dog-hating, critter-killing machine. Just look at her. She's got that "screw you" look even when she's relaxing.

A real attitude this one has.

Our Friends the Saudis

Seems our friends the Saudis were shocked, shocked I tell you, to discover during recent raids a "network of Islamic extremists, arms and sophisticated equipment all over Saudi Arabia."

In related news, British Airways has suspended all flights to Saudi Arabia indefinitely citing "security threats", based on information uncovered during some of the raids.

Britain said on Tuesday it believed the gunmen who battled Saudi police on Sunday might have been planning attacks on British interests, and that the suspects had escaped despite Saudi claims to have arrested 10 men.

The British, it seems, remain unconvinced.

I don't blame them.

And In This Corner...

We have Sollie "The Stud" Pug, weighing in at 22.6 lbs.....who just got put on a diet. *snicker*

No wonder he makes my legs hurt when he sits in my lap very long. He's turning into a real "Tub O' Pug". The vet recommended either adding green beans to his regular food (all fiber no calories)....or the high priced diet dog food.

I think he's gonna get green beans with every meal.

UPDATE: Sassy weighed in at a more respectable 75.7 lbs.....and she's not even close to being overweight. She's just a really big fluffy dog.

The cat's turn is next week. Heh heh.

Crushed

I was so crushed by this that I don't know if I can go on....my drive to post complete drivel is gone...Goodbye cruel passe blogosphere.

Oh wait....no, that's not it. I've just been busy IM-ing with my son overseas and now I have to take the dogs to the vet.

Nevermind. Back later.

BTW

Spoons, I haven't been able to get to your website for days now. I don't know why, since everyone else seems to get there ok. But I get a "Cannot Find Server" error.

You hate me, don't you?

Congratulations!

Our favorite Miss Rachel is finished with college forever, and moved into their new house. A hearty congratulations to her!

Now you guys sit back and enjoy it for a few minutes before tackling the rest of those boxes, y'hear?

Rain Haiku

Once again the clouds
passed by without raining here.
Only sadness fell.

Sollie the Stud

Sollie got quite the compliment when we walked to the mailbox earlier. A lady was driving by and saw him....she thought he was so gorgeous that she had to stop & see if he was available for stud (he's not). Seems she has a female pug, and thought that they would make beautiful puppies together.

He'll be insufferable now.

Missile Smuggler Arrested

Now this is scary. a British citizen has been arrested for attempting to smuggle in and sell a surface-to-air missile in the US.

According to the report, the man arrested in Newark was trying to smuggle a Russian-made missile into the U.S. and planned to sell it to terrorists who may have been plotting to shoot down a passenger plane.

Not much else has been released as other arrests are pending.

Maybe we will drive to Branson for our fall vacation instead of flying out East like we were talking about.

Nah. Screw 'em.

Crazy Bastard

I'll be glad when they catch the crazy bastard that did this.

Heaster told rescuers he had been picked up by a man in a blue Chevrolet and they bought beer. He said the man stopped, robbed him of his $500 disability check, beat him, cut off his pony tail, poured gasoline and set him on fire.

At least it happened in neighboring Carroll County. They don't take too kindly to people who would do something like this.

They won't give a rat's ass if he had a bad childhood.

Sorry So Boring

I've been busy packing away stuff out of one of the bedrooms so we can actually start using it again. Finally got everything that could be boxed up boxed up....how do you pack away a unicycle anyway? Or a blowdart gun?? Now I've just got to find someplace to store it and lug it all out.

Geez we're such packrats.

Circus Is In Town

At last count, 247 candidates have filed for the governorship of California. The next few months are going to be fun, ain't they? What a circus.

My favorite candidate is still Don Novello....better know as his SNL character Father Guido Sarducci.

Whatta man!

Blaster Worm Spreading

There's a computer virus infection that's spreading like wildfire this morning.

A virus-like infection that was the subject of urgent U.S. government and industry warnings spread rapidly Monday across the Internet, causing computers to mysteriously restart and coordinating an electronic attack against Microsoft Corp.

Security experts said the infection, which exploits an unusually dangerous flaw in Windows software, wasn't yet seriously disrupting Internet traffic but posed that risk as it was expected to continue spreading quickly overnight.

Researchers discovered it about 3 p.m. EDT, and reported tens of thousands of infected computers inside universities, businesses and homes.

My guess is that it isn't just hitting Microsoft....our tracking logs were spinning like crazy yesterday evening, and our DSL service was down this morning.

If you're infected, the worm, called Blaster or LoveSan, attempts to launch a DOS attack against the Windows update page using your computer.

So update your anti-virus software, and install the Windows patch if you haven't already.

Kill it until it dies from it.

Missed Again

I heard the storm clouds rumble
Each to each.

I do not think they'll rain for me.

Human Shield Fined

Faith Fippinger, one of the "brave" human shields, is being fined by the US Treasury Department for violating the pre-war sanctions against Iraq.

Fippinger, who returned home May 4, is being fined at least $10,000, but she has refused to pay. She could face up to 12 years in prison.

In her response to the charges, she wrote the government that "if it comes to fines or imprisonment, "please be aware that I will not contribute money to the United States government to continue the buildup of its arsenal of weapons." Since she won't pay, she said, "perhaps the alternative should be considered."

How very Thoreau of you. I hate to burst your bubble sweetie, but you will pay the fine one way or another. You'll find that the federal government has all kinds of creative ways to seize your assets and garnish your wages. If you want to sit in federal prison while they finish all the paperwork, then knock yourself out.

That's generally what happens when you break the law.

50 Hillbilly Things List

Here's my contribution to the current list meme making the rounds. I've marked the ones I've done with an asterisk.

50 Hillbilly Things To Do Before You Die:

1. Go catfish gigging in the Buffalo River without getting caught by everyone's arch nemesis, the Game Warden.

2. Reminisce about the good ol' days before the Buffalo River became overrun by tourists and park rangers...who ruined it for everybody.*

3. Visit Blanchard Springs Caverns, one of the most beautiful caves in the nation.*

4. Visit Mountain Home, Arkansas, and marvel at how all those people from Chicago moved there to get away from Chicago....and then turned the town into a smaller version of Chicago complete with really bad drivers.*

5. Eat a Cave City watermelon.*

6. Learn how to make your own biscuits...and proper sweet tea of course.*

7. Learn how to skip rocks.*

8. Drink from a spring.*

9. Go deer hunting and learn how tasty Vienna Sausages/potted meat and crackers are in the right setting.*

10. Learn that "Vienna Sausages" are properly referred to as "Vi-ennies", and why potted meat is commonly called "spotted possum".*

11. Learn the difference between "Gee" & "Haw" and how to tell "C'mere" from "Sic'cum".*

12. Spend some time on the north end of a south bound mule.*

13. Be kind to someone who ain't from around here....they don't know no better and they cain't hep it.*

14. Visit somewhere in the North so you'll properly appreciate where you live when you get home.*

15. Pick up pawpaws and put 'em in your pocket.*

16. Win a green persimmon eating contest.*

17. Learn how to chunk rocks.*

18. Carry a buckeye in your pocket to ward off arthritis.*

19. Catch crawdads and use 'em to catch that big bass in your secret fishing hole.

20. Find somebody what knows somebody and purchase a pint jar of real moonshine. Don't drink it all at onct.

21. Find a patch of ripe huckleberries and eat until you can't hold any more.*

22. Learn what to do when you get covered in chiggers or seed ticks.*

23. Learn to identify poison ivy, poison oak and stingin' nettles...and avoid 'em like the plague.*

24. Chew some gum from a sweet gum tree.*

25. Make snow ice cream.*

26. Watch a chicken chase a June bug.*

27. Go coon huntin' just to listen to the sweet baying of the coonhounds.

28. Make a grapevine swing.*

29. Make a flyin' jenny.*

30. Eat muscadine jelly & freshly churned butter on a hot biscuit and know you can now die happy.*

31. Learn to whittle.*

32. Sit on your front porch in the shade with a cold glass of tea and watch the world go by.*

33. Learn to square dance.*

34. Learn that no self-respecting hillbilly would be caught dead clogging, and instead learn how to jig dance.

35. Learn that good manners dictate that you never swear in mixed company and that you never, ever take the last piece of fried chicken.*

36. Use stumpwater to take away warts and a raw potato to draw out infection from a wound.

37. For entertainment, feed sourmash to a rooster.

38. Go skinny-dipping in a spring-fed creek on a dare.* February is not a good time. Trust me on that one.

39. In the spring, cut a hickory limb and make a whistle.*

40. Cut a forked peach tree branch, peel all the bark off it and witch for water.*

41. Look for a legendary lost silver mine.*

42. Visit Saltpeter Cave in the Ozark National Forest.*

43. Build and use an outhouse.*

44. Attend a barn raisin' and pitch right in & help.

45. After the first frost, eat a big bait of wild persimmons then split open the seeds to predict the upcoming winter weather.* Spoons mean deep snow, knives means lots of ice and forks means a mild winter.

46. Learn that good fences make good neighbors, and NEVER go onto someone else's property without asking permission first.* We get right touchy about trespassers. Survivors will get the law sic'ced on 'em.

47. Go ginseng hunting, but watch for snakes.

48. Steal a watermelon from the patch without getting shot in the butt with a shotgun loaded with rock salt.

49. Go camping and fry up a big bunch of sliced 'taters & onions in a cast-iron skillet over the campfire....and a couple of smallmouth bass if you can catch 'em.*

50. Laugh to yourself when people make fun of hillbillies. They don't know how good you've got it, and you'd like to keep it that way.*

Whose Bill of Rights?

North Carolina's copy of the Bill of Rights, stolen by a damn Yankee during the Civil War, has resurfaced....but its putative "owner" doesn't want to give it back to the state.

According to historical records, an Ohio infantryman walked off with North Carolina's copy of the Bill of Rights in 1865....After the Civil War, the soldier sold the document for $5 to an Indianapolis businessman named Charles Shotwell, who later tried to entice North Carolina officials to buy it back. They refused.

Soon after, it caught the eye of Wayne Pratt, a titan in the high-end antique trade, where fortunes can be made or broken on a chest of drawers.

Mr. Pratt and an investment partner, Mr. Matthews bought the document for $200,000, verified its authenticity and then started trying to sell it.

In March, Mr. Pratt was about to seal a $5 million deal for the document with the new National Constitution Center in Philadelphia when museum officials contacted the authorities, which led to the document's seizure.

It's now tied up in a court battle to determine ownership....not a difficult decision one would think.

"It's really simple," said Mr. Whitney, the United States attorney. "That document was never supposed to be private property. It belongs to the people."

More specifically, the people of North Carolina. There is a doctrine in the law by which an innocent third-party purchaser for value may, under certain circumstances, acquire title to stolen property....one of the keys being innocent, as in there's no way you could've known the property was stolen. I sincerly doubt that Mr. Pratt didn't know exactly what he was buying. Mr. Matthews now says he would be willing to donate the document to a museum, if asked nicely.

"But I don't want anything shoved down my throat," he said.

And, as his lawyers point out, it is the Bill of Rights that protects individual freedoms and says that no person shall "be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."

As we say in the trade, that's interesting, but not very. You might notice that "stolen property" is not included in that sentence. (Leaving aside the fact that the Bill of Rights only protects you from government action, not actions of private individuals.) Generally speaking, one does not acquire title to stolen property when one knows or should know that the property is stolen.

Due process that, you tacky little carpetbagger.

Whatta Guy

While we were folding laundry, Mike seriously asked "Are these your shorts or Bubby's?"

See why I married him?

Two Faces of Bubs

We took Bubs down to Harrison yesterday to meet my parents....they're keeping him for a few days.

Here's the way Bubs behaves at my mom's:

My mom said the last time Bubs stayed with them, he slept all snuggled up to the sock monkey I'd made him. But when she was getting his things ready to leave, he didn't want to bring his sock monkey, but wanted his treasured balloon on a string. So she sat his sock monkey up on the table, telling him that his monkey would be there waiting for him to come back. Bubs stopped, thought a few moments and returned to where the monkey was sitting on the table. He raised his precious balloon up, carefully tied the string around the monkey's hand, then happily went on his way.

Here's how he behaves at our house:

We were struggling to get him dressed and his things together yesterday morning, and of course Sollie was constantly underfoot. Bubs is chasing around after me and Sollie when out of the blue Bubs turns and does his best Max impersonation, completed with a loud "RRRRRAGH!!". Scares the hell out of Sollie, who doesn't have a clue as to what's going on, so he barks. Bubs thinks this is hilarious, and repeats the "RRRRAGH!!" Sollie figures out that this is a new game, so he barks again....and the chase is on. Boy chases dog yelling "RRRRRAGH!", dog chases boy while barking madly. Neither of them will stop long enough to finish getting ready, and Sollie chases Bubs out the door when we try to leave....which results in a hilarious game of "catch the dog, catch the child" while loaded down with various and sundry luggage, toys and Sippy cup.

And my dad wondered why we were late.

Good Morning to Me?

May I just say that nothing says "Good Morning!" like warm urine in your lap?

Potty training is progressing very slowly.

Oopsie!

A slight street typo was spotted by the NY Post in NYC.

The city Department of Transportation made an embarrassing spelling mistake on West 79th Street - marking off a school zone with the words "Scoool Xing."

Heh heh.

Blogger Awards

John Cole's got the categories, go vote for your favorites.

No, I won't tell you who I voted for.

Interesting Question

Dean's got an interesting question for all us women:

What do you like about men?

My answer? They're not women.

Go give him your two cents worth.

Busy Boy

He's been a busy little boy. Now he's napping.

I was so ready for that.

Friday Five

1. What's the last place you traveled to, outside your own home state/country? Ummm, well that would be Jay, Oklahoma yesterday. The last vacation we took was to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon.

2. What's the most bizarre/unusual thing that's ever happened to you while traveling? My traveling is usually pretty uneventful, with the exception of getting stranded in the Denver airport one night....which sucked mightily. There was some crazy guy in a subway tunnel in Paris who starting growling & ran towards me & two other girls like he was going to attack us...then the jackass starting laughing because the two other girls screamed & hid behind me. I'm like what the hell are you two doing hiding behind me? I'm not going to protect you. They were under the mistaken impression that I would kick his ass. Me, I figured I only had to run faster than the two of them.

3. If you could take off to anywhere, money and time being no object, where would you go? Everywhere. I love to travel & see new things. I'd start by flying to Japan to see my son. Then to Australia & New Zealand. Then on around the world. I'd even go back to France just to go to the Musee D'Orsay to see my favorite painting (Renoir's A Dance in Town) And it would be great to re-visit the Louvre with someone who wasn't obsessed with boring Renaissance paintings.

4. Do you prefer traveling by plane, train or car? Plane, just because it gets me there faster. Trains are ok too. Car is best for seeing the countryside, but the downside is that I can't ride in a car for more than a few hours without getting really uncomfortable....as in a lot of pain.

5. What's the next place on your list to visit? Hard to say, we're thinking about spending a week next spring on a houseboat in the Florida Keys just fishing. But you never know about us. We could get a wild hair and take off to just about anywhere. (This empty nest thing is great!) My being in school has kinda put a damper on that though.

That was fun. Now I have to starting moving, gotta leave to pick up Bubs shortly.

Tired Thursday

Pre-trial hearing took for-freaking-ever, and I was plumb wore out when I finally got home this afternoon. I did manage to swing by the local drugstore & get my passport photos made....not going anywhere, just time to renew it in case we decide to. Anyway, I discovered something when comparing the photos.

The last ten years have aged me considerable.

Much like a fine wine.

Addicted?

If you answer yes to these questions, you too may be an Internet addict:

• More than intended time spent online

• Excessive thoughts or anxiety when not online.

Now I ain't no psychiatrist or statistician, but seems to me there might be a problem with their sample group.

Shapira devised the criteria after conducting face-to-face psychiatric evaluations of 20 volunteers who identified themselves as having problems with the Internet and 17 randomly selected college students with varying levels of Internet use.

Additionally, they were online more than 30 hours per week, and their nonessential Internet use was 10 times greater than their essential use, such as job- and school-related activities.

So basically what they're saying is that crazy people spend too much time online.

Hell, we already knew that.

Yay Me!

Just got my grades online....A's in both Excel and Windows OS. Yay me!

In other news, I played hooky from posting yesterday to work on a spreadsheet (yuck) and to read a non-school related book. (Thanks Adam for your suggestion.) And today I have a pre-trial hearing in beautiful downtown Jay on one of my two remaining cases from hell....so it'll probably be pretty quiet around here until this afternoon. Life intrudes and all that.

But you can always check out some of the sites listed on my blogroll....they're all good. Now excuse please, I go take shower....and see if I can remember how to practice real law.

Election Speculation

Al "Glutton for Punishment" Gore is speaking to MoveOn.org tomorrow, causing speculation that he may be entering the 2004 presidential race.

Miss Brazile refused to speculate whether this speech signaled a re-testing of the waters for Mr. Gore, who declared in December that he wouldn't run for president again.

"I haven't talked to him so I don't know what's blazing in his saddle," Miss Brazile said. "But I do think he will give a very thoughtful, forward-thinking speech."

"Blazing in his saddle", now there's an interesting turn of phrase. I would've thought ol' Al was afraid of fire.....Fire bad! Fire burn! Heh.

Others theorize that he's going to do much as his ol' pal Joe and try to re-focus the party away from the far Left.

Rather, the speech might be part of a plan to "provide cover for the mainstream Democratic candidates" and "help be a Dean slayer" by trying to move the momentum of the party away from the far left.

"He will warn the party," Mr. Lunde said. "I think there's growing concern that Howard Dean might not just be a flavor of the month, but be a real political movement."

Doesn't say much for the Democratic party that Al's among the first to get a Clue^TM that "Bush = Hitler" isn't going to play well at the polls.

Gonna be an interesting election.

Attention Programmers

You can be replaced.

Primate Programming Inc: The Evolution of Java and .NET Training

Heh heh. I'm not so worried about taking BASIC programming in the fall now.

Of course there's always someone with no sense of humor. (Link via Fark)

Brave French Troops

French troops bravely stopped a massacre in a Congo village.

The attackers came in two waves, Manasse said. The first, dressed in military uniforms, fired on fleeing villagers; the second in civilian clothes hacked the wounded with machetes.

The sound of the helicopters drove off the attackers, he said.

Soooo.....the French troops didn't actually _do_ anything but fly over the area until the attackers ran away?

Col. Gerard Dubois, spokesman for the French-led 1,100-strong international force based in Bunia, said after the helicopters frightened the attackers off, 150 more French troops went to the village in armored personnel carriers and secured the area.

Well done, brave Sir Robin. I guess the villagers feel much safer now and will go about their lives?

"When the French go," he said. "We will leave the village."

Smart guy.

Yippee!

School. Is Out. For. Summer. Or what's left of summer anyway. I ran by the bookstore after my last class to get my books for next semester, fought my way through the throngs of cranky parents & whining children at WalMart to get school supplies while they were on sale.....the only way I kept my sanity was to think about the tall icy glass of sweet tea I was going to kick back & enjoy once I made it home.

Then my cell phone rang. A work-related call that will mean some extra money over the next couple of days but still....dammit. There's no rest for the weary....or is that wicked? Anyway, they're just going to have to wait a little longer for me to call them back.

There's a glass of tea that's been calling my name all afternoon and I'm taking the time to enjoy it.

Blog Ethics

There's beginning to be a whole lotta hubbub in the media about bloggers and our ethics...or the lack thereof.

The decision by a Web site to post the name of Kobe Bryant's accuser has many asking once again if the Internet can be tamed, and if privacy and ethics laws have disappeared in a new age of communication.

And if you've come here looking for such names and/or photos, you're in for a big disappointment....I would no more post such things than I would post a photo of my grandmother in her underwear. (Not that I have such a thing, but you get my point.) And neither would any of the blogs I read or link to. But some have, which has lead to some criticism from media types.

Eric Burns, host of "Fox News Watch," calls the Internet "wild and uninhibited and often inaccurate," comparing it to an Old West frontier town "before the sheriff got there."

Uh-humm.....unlike say the Washington Post or that paragon of true and accuracy, the NYT. Pot. Kettle. Black.

The truth of the matter is that for the most part, the Web is much like the media....as my daddy always said, don't believe anything you read and only half of what you see. Like anything else, one must read things on the Web with a critical eye. There is one big difference however. On the Web, we can and do Fact Check Your Ass^TM.

Therein lies the biggest problem, I suspect, that the media has with blogs. Their days of playing fast and loose with the facts are over, thanks to FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) and widespread internet access amongst us, the hoi-polloi. Case in point....The Smoking Gun.

TSG is among those to have changed the landscape of what is readily accessible to the public — publishing accurate and verifiable police reports, court records and other documents involving the rich and famous...."Since we've been on the scene, people in the public eye get away with a little bit less," said Green. "They don't get as much of a free pass as they used to."

Precisely. Knowledge is power, after all. And there are those who apparently don't like "the masses" having ready access to this type of information.

"The Internet is forcing us to wrangle with the idea of public records becoming truly public," said Shane Ham, senior policy analyst at the Progressive Policy Institute. "This information has always been available, but it's a lot different when you can pop it up on the Internet in a couple of seconds. We need to think about possibly redefining what is publicly available information."

Hardly a progressive attitude, is it? Sounds to me like he's saying that FOIA and such were just a tossed bone that few were expected to actually use. And now that it is being widely utilized, it should be gutted. Which also sounds to me much like trying to close the barn door after the cow's gotten out.

While there'll always be those who believe anything they read on the internet, they're really no different from those who believe what they read in supermarket tabloids. And those who post such untruths online are no more credible or ethical than tabloids.

The only difference I see is that they're exposed for what they are much more quickly online.

And that's a good thing.

Monday Continues

I just went out to fire up the grill. Skeeters 'bout ate my legs off. There was just about enough charcoal to roast a small mouse. I burned my finger on my cigarette lighter because someone left the full matchbox out in yard (Michael), and the easy lighting charcoal wasn't.

And now it's raining. But I'm still grilling steak by crackey. Because sometimes I'm just a stubborn jackass like that.

'Splaining To Do

Contrary to expectations, state tax revenues for last month were up....a lot.

Overall, the state collected nearly $315 million. That means it brought in 5.5% more money than the same month a year ago. Overall, the revenue came in $2.9 million higher than the May 15 forecast.

The most notable increase came in the area of corporate income tax collections. Arkansas took in $18.2 million in July -- that's 47% higher than the July 2002 total.

And we got like a ka-jillion dollars from the Feds here lately too. So 'splain to me again, Gov., why we needed that 3% tax increase?

Let me guess, it's For the Children^TM.

What. Ever.