Res Ipsa Loquitur

Home At Last

We drove down to Little Rock last night after work....spent all day today in a HIPAA seminar. Just got home a little bit ago....we are so dead. Now we're gonna race & see who falls asleep first.

See youse guys tomorrow.

Perverts Are Not Just Males

Child molesting perverts are not just males.

First she was arrested and charged with raping a child, now she's accused of attempting to take a child from a Springdale church daycare facility.

Kathleen DeChant was arrested for child rape in September. She was scheduled to go to trial on that charge Wednesday, but the trial was postponed because of a pending mental evaluation. DeChant found herself behind bars at two different jails in the same day, for different violations.

That would be Springdale, Arkansas....a city that I can see clearly from my front porch. This pervert was released on bond and immediately went out to find another victim. You'd think our local judge might want to reconsider his automatic catch & release policy in these cases.

Parents should always remember that perverts come in all shapes & sizes...and gender.

And they're everywhere.

Pull My Solar Finger

Apparently in space, _everyone_ can hear you pass gas. (Link via Fark )

Today's Rabid Rant

Today's Rabid Rant is brought to us by Paul Craig Roberts of the Washington Times and the letter N. He's a little upset at the Pentagon's look at developing "mini-nukes".

This extraordinary proposal from the world's arms-control hegemon demonstrates the fanaticism of the neoconservatives. They are indeed the heirs of the French Revolution just as professor Claes Ryn shows in his new book, "America the Virtuous."

Isn't "neocon" the latest buzzword for the Joos? Or am I misinformed? Whomever he is referring to, it's pretty low to compare them to the "heirs of the French Revolution" cuz like......didn't those people end up turning on each other & destroying themselves kinda like the Democratic party has been doing lately?

The Pentagon report, which has been leaked to a defense magazine, designates "terrorists" as the targets of the mini-nukes. New nuclear weapons are said to be necessary in order to destroy deeply buried biological weapons caches, terrorist cells and hidden weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

In the case of bio and other WMD's, how else would one destroy them? Send in the world's largest HAZMAT team? Yeah, that'd be effective.

Deeply buried caches of weapons of mass destruction exist nowhere except, of course, in the United States, Israel and Russia — countries that are not to be found on the neoconservatives' terrorist list. But neoconservatives are betting that a rumored threat can be used to justify a new generation of nuclear weapons.

Oh yeah, I forgot. They don't exist in Iraq because no one's seen them yet. Except the Kurds. But they don't count because that was just a tribal thing, and Saddam just abandoned that little effective chemical warfare weapon because after all, they weren't used in the Iraq war. Evil dictators do that, you know. They develop things that will kill thousands of people with one hit and then just toss them aside. Right.

The only purpose of the "small nuclear weapons" — an oxymoron if ever there was one — is to incinerate Muslim cities. Just as Iraq, Iran and Syria are declared, propagandistically, to be "terrorist states," Damascus, Tehran, Baghdad, Mecca, Cairo and Mogadishu would be declared "terrorist cities." It looks as if the neoconservatives intend a final solution to their "Muslim problem" and are organizing genocide for Arabs.

He says that like it was a bad thing. But seriously, if we had lobbed a few mini-nukes into the caves at Bora-Bora, you think we would still be getting releases of Usama's latest hits collections or the new Jihadists' Gone Wild (Now With More Camel Humping!)? Because the only effective way to stop terrorists is to like, you know, kill them first.

Not satisfied with their revolutionary destruction of world order, neoconservatives now demand that the United States lead the world in a new round of nuclear proliferation.

If this is not the behavior of a rogue state, what is?

Ooo, ooo, I know the answer to that one. What is sending people covered with strap-on bombs to blow themselves up, thereby murdering innocent civilian bystanders? Yeah, yeah. Amerikka bad, Palestine good. Now there's an original and highly logical position.

The Pentagon report argues for a new generation of useable nuclear weapons on the bare assumption that terrorist underground caches of WMD will materialize out of thin air sometime in the future. The Pentagon report does not explain why terrorists who intend us harm would make targets of their WMD by storing them in bunkers instead of immediately using them against us.

Here's a thought. Perhaps they're storing them until.....say....they get a chance to use them in a big way.

In three short years, neoconservatives have reorganized the Department of Defense from a deterrent force to a means of waging aggressive war.

And a damn fine job they've done too....one that's allowed Mr. Roberts to sit in the safety of his office writing anti-Amerikkan screeds instead of hiding in a bunker under a destroyed D.C.

It shows that U.S. policy, following that of Israel's Ariel Sharon, has abandoned the quest for peace in the Middle East, focusing instead on a one-sided resolution through conquest.

Damn those Joos! If they're gonna run the world, they should do a better job. After all, that "quest for peace" has worked so well in the past. I can't imagine why it would be "abandoned" by those who are actually getting killed.

Deceived, befuddled and complicit, Americans are being led into a wider war.

If we weren't all too stupid, we would see what's really happening. Good thing we have the superior intellects of those like Mr. Roberts to explain it to us.

Now if he'd just explain why the Joos are running things if he and his ilk are so much more intelligent than everyone else.

[/sarcasm]

Political Kiss of Death

If you examine his post-presidential record, it sure seems like Clinton has the reverse Midas touch in politics. Clark is falling in the polls, Gray Davis recalled, Jeb Bush re-elected by a huge margin. And then there's this:

Also irking Democratic 2004 wannabes is the way that Clinton from time to time issues words of wisdom on, say, Iraq that undermine their arguments against President Bush. Or pops up in first-voting Iowa, stealing attention, just as his wife will be at a big dinner there on Nov. 15.

You'd almost think he was intentionally trying to keep a Democratic candidate out of the White House in '04....and some people do.

"He's keeping the party unbalanced . . . He will continue to pick and choose his moments to throw other people off their game," adds this activist, convinced Clinton's real agenda is keeping any Dem from a 2004 win so Hillary has a clear field in 2008.

But there's also broad belief among Democrats that despite his public claims of neutrality, Clinton is desperate to stop Howard Dean for fear that he'll yank the Democratic Party too far to the left, damaging it for decades and hurting Hillary's chances in 2008.

That may be the Clinton's plan for the Democratic primary, but that doesn't explain why pretty much every candidate he's supported in state elections has tanked.

Perhaps the people who voted, unlike the people who answer polls, are as sick of him & Hillary as I.

"Sweatshop" Realities

Sean Combs has been accused of using sweatshop labor to produce his line of Sean John clothing in Honduras. He has denied the charges, and says he will end his contract with the business if any of the allegations are true. Good for him. Sweatshops are a bad thing....if this business is indeed a sweatshop.

Workers are subjected to daily body searches, contaminated drinking water and 11- to 12-hour daily shifts, the report said. In exchange, they are paid 24 cents for each $50 Sean John sweat shirt they sew.

I've worked in a similar factory and except for the "contaminated drinking water", I don't see the problem. Sure, we weren't allowed to work over 8 hrs. because of governmental regulations, but I've worked longer shifts in other jobs. Daily body searches? Yep, and purses and lunchbags. You know why? People steal. 24 cents per shirt? I don't remember what my piece rate was, but that sounds about right. I know at the end of the week, my paycheck reflected a more than minimum wage payrate. And so do theirs.

And while the minimum wage in Honduras is 55 cents an hour, he said his workers make an average of 90 cents per hour.

You can't measure the pay rate in another country by U.S. standards. And it appears that these workers are making pretty good wages when compared to other workers in that country.

I'm no economist or sociologist, but it seems to me these types of factories, as long as they treat people reasonably, is one way to raise the standard of living in those third-world countries. If this article is correct, the workers are paid almost twice the minimum wage.....which gives them more money to put back into their local economies....which creates more jobs and so on.

It sometimes seems to me that some of those who are most opposed to overseas factories would rather these workers be permanently attached to their government's teats than actually work for their money. Of course, independent workers are so much harder to control than governmental aid recipients, right?

But that's just my uneducated opinion.

Iraq <> Vietnam

Ralph Peters lists the reasons Iraq is not Vietnam. I agree. I remember when we were in Vietnam.

It's not even remotely similar.

It's On Its Way

Here's a great time-lapse photo of yesterday's solar eruption and its resulting CME that's supposed to arrived later today.

Cool.

Warning

There is a sun god and boy is he pissed. Ok, maybe not. But there is a huge solar flare headed our way....predicted to hit sometime tomorrow afternoon. And it's a big 'un.

But Kohl said scientists observed the biggest such explosion in 30 years shortly before 6 a.m. EST Tuesday. It produced a particle cloud 13 times larger than Earth and hurtled through the solar system at more than 1 million miles per hour.

The resulting geomagnetic storm could be ranked among the most powerful of its kind and last for 24 hours.

On a more positive note, we may be able to see the aurora as far south as Texas and Florida.

That'll be cool!

Here's The Next Round

A new e-mail virus, called Sober, is starting to spread in Germany & the UK.

Many people are thought to be falling victim to it because one version poses as an update from anti-virus firms.

Sober also re-uses subject lines seen in older viruses but again tries to fool users by adding comments that make messages bearing them look benign.

Should've called it the "Lon Chaney" virus.

Busy-ness Ahead

Sorry folks, but looks to be a incredibly busy week ahead. Two court appearances plus classes plus homework plus a legal seminar in Little Rock on Friday....and now I have a job interview tomorrow afternoon for a temp position.

Nothing fancy, just a temporary cashier's job for the Christmas season....but it could be a foot in the door for something much bigger later on. We'll see. I've worked retail before, so I know what to expect....and it'll be fun to play with all the kids who will come through my line.

At any rate, it would be nice to have some extra cash on hand for Christmas and bills....and there's no shame in doing honest work for an honest wage. The job will probably cut into my blogging time, but hey. We all have to make sacrifices sometimes.

That's life.

Fractured Fairytales

The latest CNN/USAToday/Gallup poll shows Clark's support is dropping....and a few other interesting things. Dean now has a slim lead, 1%, over Clark....for what that's worth. The poll has an error rate of +/- 5%, so that's hardly statistically significant.

What's more interesting is that support for the top 5 candidates, Dean (16%), Clark (15%), Gephardt (12%), Lieberman (12%) and Kerry (10%) is pretty evenly distributed. Throw in the poll's error rate and it's an even bigger mess. The Democratic Convention should be a helluva show.

As an afterthought, CNN threw in at the end the rest of the poll's results.

The CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll also shows President Bush's job approval rating at 53 percent, compared to 42 percent who disapproved. In a hypothetical match-up with an unnamed Democrat, Bush is the choice of 46 percent, while the president's rival was picked by 43 percent.

The margin of error for the poll questions about Bush was plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Looks like the "Attack Bush" plan isn't working too well.....which isn't too surprising. Attacking your opponent can only be effective if you can follow up with a reasonable alternative plan.

And that the Dems haven't done.

Influential Books

John Hawkins graciously asked me to participate in his latest list....Books That Have Had the Greatest Impact on Your Thinking. I've read about 13 out of the 20 listed, so it's a pretty good cross-section. Even though only 1 from my list made the cut...but it topped the overall list.

I think you'll be surprised to see what so-called "right-of-center" bloggers read. Go take a look.

Very interesting.

New & Improved Recipe

I made breaded pork chops for dinner. Mike said they were fabulous. I told him it was my "New & Improved" recipe, now with less burned stuff.

Heh.

Not Safe Anywhere

Kids today are not safe anywhere.

A Chicago pediatrician was arrested after thousands of images of child [images] were found on his computers, federal prosecutors said Monday. Dr. H. Marc Watzman, 37, also had a hidden panel in his car that contained drugs such as morphine, compounds used to induce unconsciousness and a substance used to induce temporary muscular paralysis. {Edited for content}

Pretty damn scary. There's no evidence so far that he'd actually used the drugs on anyone, but it was just a matter of time.

Agents said they found a desktop computer in Watzman's apartment with about 40 images of child [images] and more than 200,000 erased images. They also seized a laptop containing 3,000 to 5,000 images....authorities said. {Edited for content}

What's even more scary, and reprehensible, is that there's that many of those photos out there....and more.

Free speech my ass.

We Beg To Differ

Adam just brought this editorial by Paul Greenberg from our local paper to my attention.

THE PROBLEM here isn’t just Gregg Easterbrook’s making a jerk of himself in print; it’s the blogosphere itself. The supposed allure of a blog is that the writers go off completely unedited. It’s just raw, highly opinionated, highly emotional, probably highly caffeinated schlock. Oh, sure, some of it’s interesting schlock. (We’re addicted to Andrew Sullivan’s blog.) But too often the result is a twisted rant from even a polished, literate writer like Gregg Easterbrook. It’s not writing, it’s angry typing. Reading some of this stuff, you can practically hear the author pounding his fingers bloody on the keys.

According to Mr. Greenberg, it were them dern newfangled blogs what got Mr. Easterbrook fired. Even if that were true, and I doubt (Disney) that it was (Disney), if Mr. Greenberg had bothered actually reading a few blogs, he might've discovered that the general opinion of the Blogosphere was that Mr. Easterbrook wasn't treated very well by ESPN.

But hey, what do you expect from someone who defines blogs like this:

For the few who don’t know yet, a blog is a web log, a kind of Internet-based diary without the charm. Or the editorial equivalent of posting all those e-mails you send without a half-moment’s thought for the whole world to see. (Our own definition of a blog would be professional suicide.)

"Professional suicide"? As opposed to say, talking smack about blogs when you obviously are unfamiliar with the genre? (See, e.g., Bill O'Reilly)

But Adam was much nicer than I, and wrote a little "post to the editor"....and he thoughtfully e-mailed the link to the editors.

BTW, if you'd like to express your opinions to the editors of our fine little local rag, you can find their e-mail addresses here.

Things That Make You Go Hmmmm

It appears that we've caught at least one of this morning's idiot bombers.

Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling of the U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division said police shot and wounded the man when he got out of a car and tried to hurl a grenade at a Baghdad police station. The car carried three mortar rounds and was packed with TNT, he said.

"He's a foreign fighter. He had a Syrian passport and the policemen claim that as he was shot and fell that he said he was Syrian," Hertling told a news conference.

Hmmmm.

He described the attacks as coordinated but said the coordination was not very sophisticated, extending no further than a decision by the various attackers to set off their bombs between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m.

"That's not professional, it's actually somewhat amateurish," Hertling said.

Inept second-stringers and benchwarmers....sounds like they're scraping the bottom of the barrel. That's the problem with homicide bombers.

After a point, they become a non-renewable resource.

Idiot Bombings

I was working on a post this morning about the latest round of idiot bombings in Iraq, but ran out of time. I just found that Steve wrote a much better one....so now I don't have to.

Thanks!

Unintentionally Funny

Today's NYTimes article about the "FreeStaters" moving to Vermont has some great quotes. Here's one lady's plan to become a billionaire there.

Her New Hampshire plans include starting eight businesses "because nine out of every 10 fail, and I've already started two, so I need to do eight more."

Sounds suspiciously like an Underpants Gnomes business plan to me. Here's another gem:

Mr. Somma doesn't argue against public schools, but maintains that they get too much money, which is good only "if you have to have nice school buildings and computers and all that." "Back in the day," he said, "they didn't need all that to teach kids. Back in the day, you were sitting around on rocks and listening to a guy talk."

Alas, the days of important classes like flintnapping, fire starting and food gathering are long gone.

I know these people are hardly typical of the Libertarians I've seen around the Blogosphere....but it did make me wonder which group is really the norm.

Then again, fairly reasonable people are hardly newsworthy, are they?

Training In Progress

Over the weekend, Mike bought me a USB microphone headset so I could start using Dragon or some such voice recognition program to do most of my typing.

I'm taking advantage of the morning quiet to begin "training" the computer to recognize my voice. With my hillbilly accent & lisp-inducing retainers, that's not as easy as it sounds. I keep having to stop & repeat words over and over before the computer will recognize them.

I'm not sure what is training whom.

Fools Rush In

A group will soon go on a private peace mission to Palestine.

Now a team of Hollywood film stars is about to visit the Middle East on a private peace mission, in the belief that their charms will work magic on the Israeli-Arab conflict.

Brad Pitt, his wife Jennifer Aniston, and Danny DeVito are among the stars who aim to succeed where statesmen have stumbled.

*snort*

"The past few years of conflict mean that yet another generation of Israelis and Palestinians will grow up in hatred," reads a statement from Mr. Pitt and Miss Aniston. "We cannot allow that to happen."

Well sure. I'm surprised they've let it go on this long.

Quite how they intend to stop it is not entirely clear. The logic behind their mission, planned to take place before the end of the year, is not especially sophisticated. Mr. Pitt and Miss Aniston believe that most people in the region want a negotiated settlement with an end to violence, and imagine that by appealing directly to "ordinary folk," they can bring the warring parties together.

There's another little small problem.

"Following Arnold Schwarzenegger's election as governor in California, it seems we are now joining the Hollywood revolution," said Israeli sociologist Oz Almog. "From time to time, some celebrities think that they might help, and the media amplifies their mission. But this is an incredibly complex situation and I am afraid they are naive," he said.

"Many Palestinians do not even have television sets. What is more, for the past three years here no one has listened to anyone, so what makes these people think they will listen to Danny DeVito?"

Stranger things have happened....but it's not very likely.

The organizers concede that none of the actors has any experience of the Middle East or of conflict resolution, but argue that this may be a good thing as they will be considered nonpartisan.

If I may be so bold to point out the obvious, they may be sadly mistaken. They are all members of the organization One Voice.....which was started by "Daniel Lubetzky, a Jewish-American businessman." And they are all Hollywood "movie stars", which as we all know is a vast organization controlled by the Joos. [/sarcasm]

I wish them the best of luck.

Not Entirely A Good Thing

Everyone who's ever seen "The Wiggles" knows that there's a recurring theme of Jeff falling asleep. And everyone is urged to yell "WAKE UP JEFF!" so Jeff will wake up and do funny things. Cute, but not entirely a good thing.

Yesterday my daughter and I picked up WildChild from his mom's. I got his new baby sister to sleep while his mom corraled WildChild & finished getting him ready to leave. He was pretty rowdy, all excited because we were there. My daughter told him to quieten down because the baby was asleep.

WildChild immediately whispered "Sssh, baby's sleeping. 1-2-3..." and at the top of his lungs yelled "WAKE UP BABY!" Which Baby did...but she didn't do funny things like Jeff.

Never a dull moment when he's around.

Most Important Question

Everything I've seen written so far about Thursday's immigration raid completely misses the most important question.

Federal officials said yesterday that the leading nation of origin for the janitors caught in Thursday's raids was Mexico, with 90. The Czech Republic was second with 35, followed by Mongolia with 22, Brazil with 20. Uzbekistan, Poland, Russia, Georgia and Lithuania each had about a dozen.

Everyone is ranting about our porous border with Mexico. Granted that's a problem. But look at the numbers. Only 90 of the illegal immigrants came from Mexico, and 20 from Brazil. The rest, some 117 or so, came from Eastern Europe & Russia.

How the hell did those people get here? It's unlikely they waded the Rio Grande. And if they, with hopes of a better life, got here apparently so easily, how many others are here with other plans?

That's the question to which we should be demanding an answer.

Class Action Modifications

The proposed amendments to the rules regarding class action lawsuits have certainly provoked some interesting comments. You can read the text of the House bill as passed here. And the text of the Senate bill that was referred to committee is here. The stated purposes of the respective Acts is especially interesting.

The media reports about these bills aren't entirely accurate.

Color me surprised.

Just Bizarre

A 19 yr. old Arkansas teen has died under strange circumstances.

While police say evidence indicates a 19-year-old Shannon Hills man was poisoned, they don’t have enough evidence to prove a claim that he died from smoking rattlesnake venom-laced marijuana.

WTH?

An initial screening of Gamblin’s blood revealed the presence of marijuana. But, Brown said, "Marijuana in no way causes any of the symptoms that he showed, nor would it have caused his death in this manner." "Within 12 hours of coming to the hospital, the liver, the kidneys, and the kid’s other internal organs began shutting down," he said. Gamblin also showed "internal bleeding, red blotching on his torso, mucus in his eyes and immediate respiratory and lung problems that included pneumonia."

Oddly enough, Brown said, hospital staff and officials elsewhere have said that Gamblin’s symptoms were similar to those experienced by someone with "multiple snake bites."

Oddly enough indeed. They're hoping post-mortem tests will show whether or not their suspicions are true.

Too weird.

NYC Dogs

The NY Times has taken on the important task of analyzing NYC's dog licensing data to find which dog(s) are most popular. The results aren't too surprising.

--Shih Tzu: Upper East Side

--Chihuahua: Spanish Harlem

--Rottweiler: South Bronx

--Poodles: Sheepshead Bay/Manhattan Beach

And which dog is most popular in the east end of Greenwich Village?

Pugs of course. Go figure.

Scalia Recuses From Pledge Case

Justice Scalia will not be hearing the "Pledge of Allegiance" case, because he recused himself. That's a shame....no sarcasm intended. As Paul Greenburg says,

Whether you agree or disagree with an opinion from Justice Scalia, and I regularly do both, you can always understand it, see how he came by it and where he would have the law go. That is a lot more than one can say about the vaporous effusions from most of the other justices.

Whether or not I agree, I always enjoy reading Scalia's opinions. He writes and argues well, which is unfortunately a rare quality on the Court these days.

My vision of judicial hell is being locked into a room and forced to listen, "Clockwork Orange" fashion, to the collected works of the Ginsburgs, Breyers, Souters, et al. Those types would make you long for the company of an aluminum siding salesman.

*shudder* I couldn't agree more.

Thanks for the nightmares.

What A Shame

X-10, of the insidious pop-under ad fame, has filed for Chapter 11. (link via Fark)

I almost feel bad for laughing.

No I don't.

Busy Thursday

It's been rather hectic today, sorry. I even had a couple of semi-interesting things to post about.....I just wish I could remember what they were.

Must not've been too interesting.

And I'm still not pinging correctly half the time. That bugs me.

*shouts out front door to entire neighborhood* PING! *closes door*

There, that feels better.

Donate Your Miles for the Troops

Now here's a good idea....you can donate your frequent flier miles for the troops in Iraq.

Under "Operation Hero Miles," people will be able to turn their frequent-flier miles over to their airlines, which in turn will make them available to soldiers trying to get home for their brief leaves.

You can get more information at the Operation Hero Miles website.

It's a great idea. Soldiers are flown to Germany or Baltimore/Washington airport for free, but the rest of their trip home comes out of their pocket. And we all know how expensive short-notice flights can be.

Donate 'em if ya got 'em....and help spread the word.

Cyber Spam Stalker

I've acquired a cyber spam stalker.

How cute.....BTW, I took the liberty to edit his comment into something a bit more suitable.

If you're going to shit in my yard, don't complain if I rub your nose in it....for starters.

And What's Wrong With It?

Senate Dems are fighting legislation that would give jurisdiction of most class-action lawsuits to federal court.

Under both the House and Senate versions of the bill, class-action lawsuits in which the primary defendant and more than one-third of the plaintiffs are from the same state would still be heard in state courts. But if less than one-third of the plaintiffs are from the same state as the primary defendant, the case would go to federal court.

Also, at least $5 million would have to be at stake for a class-action lawsuit to be heard in federal court.

I can see why trial lawyers are against it...no more forum shopping (Mississippi)....no more nuisance suits.....less chance of a huge verdict/legal fees.

I'm having a hard time seeing a downside.

Weird Dog I

Most people's dogs come running when they hear the can opener. Mine do too, but Sollie takes it one step further. He comes running when he hears me getting ice out of the ice maker....because he loves to eat ice cubes. See, I started giving him ice to chew on when he was a puppy & teething. Now he's addicted to them.

Not that that's particularly interesting....but it's weird.

Random Linkage

--Paul has an outstanding example of "When Spandex Goes Bad".

--Michele sezs she's getting that feeling that something wicked this way comes.

--Steve sezs we should all poke 'em in the eye with a sharp stick....errr, or something like that.

--Adam is looking for entries for his new feature "The Kissing Booth".

--And Matt and Miss Vicky just celebrated their 2nd wedding anniversary. The very best wishes to them both!

Just A Suggestion

I've seen talk around about setting up a backup site for use in case of situations like yesterday's DoS attack on HM. An excellent idea, IMHO. Instapundit has one, as does Citizen Smash/Indepundit, found here. I've even remembered to bookmark them, so if you have one, please leave a link in the comments or e-mail it to me. Yes, I know HTML is disabled in my comments, you can thank the p0rn spammers for that. Please leave a link anyway. I'll round 'em all up & do a post with everyone's backup site link.

But it seems to me that most everyone putting their backup site on Blogspot is a bad idea.....the backups would still be as vulnerable to attack if they're all on the same hosting service. So what's some similar alternatives? Any ideas?

Cuz I think we're going to see a whole lot more of these attacks....it was pretty effective short-term at least, and apparently not that hard to do....this time anyway.

Please don't think that I'm critical of HM's handling of the attacks. I'm not. I think they did a great job, and I really appreciate all their hard work in getting us all back online as soon as humanly possible. And I have no intentions of moving my site anywhere permanently.

It's just I don't intend to let those bastards shut me down. Ever.

I get knocked down,
but I get up again,
you're never gonna keep me down.

Pissin' the night away.

There's your earworm for today. Heh.

It's An Ill Wind

I took advantage of the downtime to do a little cooking.

Fried chicken, corn and big fluffy biscuits.

And freshly made punkin pie.

In a little bit, Mike's gonna whip some cream for the pie.

It doesn't get much better than this.

Attack Continues

Hosting Matters is still under attack, though they seem to have things well in hand....and are busting their butts getting everyone back online. So if some of your favorite sites are down, that's why.

Everything should be back up & running soon.

Your patience is appreciated.

Let's not forget whose fault this is.

UPDATE: Keith has a link to more details on the attack....apparently the attack is coming from an "online jihad".

I got their jihad right here.

Idiotic Lawsuit

A woman is suing Smuckers for its "100% fruit" jam claim.

Lead plaintiff Stephanie Schwebel, described by her attorney as having a "sensitive palate," tasted only an empty promise when she first sampled the jam.

So she called a lawyer.

Tests on "simply 100 percent" strawberry jam revealed that the spread contained less than 30 percent actual strawberries and the blueberry version contained just 43 percent berries, the lawsuit said.

The premium jam also contains fruit syrup, lemon juice concentrate, fruit pectin, red grape juice concentrate and natural flavors, according to the J.M. Smucker Co. Web site.

I don't know how to break this to you, Ms. Sensitive Palate, but there's a slight problem with your legal theory.

--Fruit syrup comes from, guess what? Fruit.

--Lemon juice concentrate is made from fruit.

--Fruit pectin is made from....fruit.

--Red grape juice concentrate comes from....fruit.

--Natural favors presumably also come from fruit.

Only a complete and total moron would think any kind of strawberry jam contained just strawberries. Your first clue should be that it's called jam, not strawberries in a jar. And the label says 100% fruit, not 100% strawberries. Or does your sensitive palate inhibit your critical reading abilities?

Idiot.

New Bomber Tape Posted

A tape has been posted online from the alleged Riyadh bombers.

“We promise that we will not let you live safely and you will not see from us anything else just bombs, fire, destroying homes, cutting your heads. Our mujahideen is coming to you very soon to let you see what you didn’t see before."

Whatever.

How's that being dead working out for you boys?

Niagara Falls Survivor

A man has survived Niagara Falls without any special equipment.

Witnesses described seeing the man float by Monday in the swift Niagara River, go headfirst over the churning 180-foot waterfall and then pull himself out of the water onto rocks below.

Let me guess. The last thing anyone heard him say before jumping in the river was "Hey Bubba, hold m'beer and watch this."

What an idiot.

New DOS Attack

Apparently yesterday's outage & posting problems was not just an AT&T latency issue....it appears to have been a new DOS attack on the same IP as last time, according to Hosting Matters. (Thanks to Andrea for the heads up.)

Outrageous Policy

Have you heard about this?

Sgt. Brandon Erickson, 22, had just finished the third of five surgeries on his amputated right arm when he awoke at 6 a.m. to find a private in his room at Walter Reed Army Medical Center (search) with paperwork ready for him to sign.

She said, 'This is a paper that says you have to pay $8.10 a day for your food.' I went off the deep end," said Erickson, a North Dakota National Guardsman who was injured in Iraq in July when a rocket-propelled grenade struck the cargo truck he was riding in.

I can imagine. I've seen my dad, a disabled Korean vet, do something similar when they tried to refuse to reimburse his expenses to travel the 100+ miles to the VA hospital for some medical tests. And my dad's not one to lose his temper.

At least Congress is trying to reverse this policy. I should hope we've learned something, and treat this war's veterans better than those of previous wars.

I hope.

Age-Old Question

If I write a post and it doesn't ping, does anyone read it?

I didn't think so.

Ping, damn you. Ping!

Hellllooo???

Is this thing on? It's telling me I'm not pinging....which if I'm not, how would you know because you won't be here checking my updates. And my SiteMeter seems to be all screwed up too. And there's nothing I can do on my end to fix either of those problems. Grrrr!

*sigh*

I need to go start on my homework anyway.

I Feel Safer....

...not. You know the boxcutters & stuff found hidden on the SWAirlines planes?

According to the affidavit filed along with the criminal complaint, Heatwole sent the Transportation Security Administration an e-mail in September outlining six security breaches at Raleigh-Durham International Airport and Baltimore-Washington International Airport.

Two days later he went through security at Baltimore-Washington airport and put three box-cutters and the same other paraphernalia in the same location in the lavatory on another Southwest Airlines flight.

They couldn't find the really dangerous stuff, but they damn sure confiscated my spare lighter fast enough last time we flew.

Ridiculous.

QVC Live

There's a clip making the rounds somewhere online of the joys of live TV when demonstrating a ladder.

"Everybody wants this ladder!'' Renee said. "I live in an apartment with vaulted ceilings," she continued as, on camera, a guest demonstrator climbed to the top of a telescoping ladder - then slipped and fell about six feet to the floor. "Uh-oh," said Renee, who continued with her testimonial as the camera quickly cut from a shot of the demonstrator - identified only as Chris - writhing on his back, to a view of another ladder in another part of the studio. "And that has never happened," Renee said.

Luckily the demonstrator was only slightly injured.

My son & I used to watch QVC from time to time just to catch such occasionally "oopsies". My favorite was the time the perky host opened this suitcase thing full of makeup and said brightly, "Just look at all this shit....uh, stuff!"

Cracked us up.

Helluva Race

There's talk in California of a new Republican opponent for Sen. Barbara Boxer.

If Arnold Schwarzenegger can be elected governor of California, can comedian Dennis Miller unseat Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer?

Some Republicans in the Golden State think so, and quietly hope they can persuade the sharp political wit — and registered Santa Barbara Republican — to take on the liberal senator. Variety magazine reported this week that Mr. Miller has contacted California Republican consultants to feel out a campaign.

I don't know why he'd want to run for office, but if he did it would be a helluva race.

I'd want front-row tickets for that one.

This E-mail Will Self-Destruct...

Now here's a bad idea whose time has come.

The latest version of Microsoft's popular Office software will, the company claims, allow users to send e-mails that will "self-destruct" after a set time.

The development is designed to improve security - and avoid potentially embarrassing messages coming back to haunt senders.

Microsoft says users will also be able to restrict who is allowed to read an e-mail - and prevent recipients from forwarding messages to other users or printing them off.

Do you have any idea how much trouble you would get into, as a business, if you have to tell a judge you can't comply with the other side's discovery request because all your e-mails are set to self-destruct? No? Then I strongly suggest you consult your attorney.

One of the things a lecturer discussed at the legal seminar I attended Friday was the possible sanctions for document destruction. (Documents include e-mails, BTW) They include the jury being instructed that the destroyed document contain "damning information" regarding your company or self. This article also says that it is a Federal offense to destroy e-mail. I don't practice in the Federal area, so I don't know if that's true....but it wouldn't surprise me.

And now you can do this automatically?

Very. Bad. Idea.

Collective Yawn

There's a new tape out purported to come from bin Laden....which was pretty much met with a collective yawn. Death to the infidels, yada yada, big deal. Al-Jazeera only aired 17 minutes of the 31 minute tape, saying that was all that was "important material, what is newsworthy".

An important indication, I think, of how the war on terror is going.

An interesting part of the tape, though, was this:

He held back a sob when addressing the Iraqi people, telling them he shares their concerns and saluting them on their jihad.

"God knows if I could find a way to your field, I wouldn't stall," the speaker said.

What's stopping him? Can't come out of the cave for fear of being caught? Or can't escape his particular ring of hell?

Or does it matter?

Another Saturday

We took advantage of a rare grandchildless weekend to do some yardwork...and were considerably startled by repeated low fly-overs by military jets. Found out this morning that they were four F16s, flying over the football stadium at the start of the game to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 188th fighter wing. Thanks for not letting everyone know in advance, asshats.

And speaking of the game, I should be kind and say the QB was having an off-day. But I don't feel like it, so I'll just say he sucked....as did the defense in the 2nd quarter. We also watched the first game of the World Series, which was much more interesting....at least what I saw of it. I sacked out before it ended, after a long day of trimming back trees off our roof and cutting & poisoning yet again the sprouts from the city's utility right of way.

And a big thanks to our city's leaders for their infinite wisdom in cutting all the trees from the right of way, but not putting anything on the cut stumps to kill them or the inevitable sprouts. Tards. Wouldn't be environmentally correct I'm sure. Fortunately I don't suffer from such delusions, and thanks to repeated applications of the strongest tree poison I could buy over-the-counter, I am winning the brush war.

I have no intentions of spending next summer cutting black locust sprouts....which, if you don't know, are covered with nasty little thorns.

Environmentally correct be damned.

Weekend at Home

The War Eagle craft fair AND the UofA/Florida football game are happening this weekend. Best estimates are there will be between 350,000 to 400,000 visitors in town over the weekend.

We are not going anywhere for anything.

I hope.

Boogie Woogie Flu

Da Goddess has pneumonia....or as my dad calls it, the new-monie fever.

Go leave her some get well soon wishes.

Boxcutter Suspect

CNN is reporting that a 20 yr. old North Carolina college student is being questioned about the boxcutters and other items found on the Southwest airplanes earlier today.

No details yet, though it's reported that the FBI has been told to stand down.

Friday Five

1. Name five things in your refrigerator. Uh, milk, rye bread, butter, Gatorade, and half & half.

2. Name five things in your freezer. Ice cream, brisket, Italian sausage, butter, and pork chops. Do we eat healthy or what?

3. Name five things under your kitchen sink. Dishwashing liquid, sponges, 409, Windex and dog treats. Sassy has learned that's where we keep the dog treats, so if you say the words "good dog", she promptly runs to the cabinet & pokes at the door with her nose. We even tried spelling it to avoid this, but as my sister correctly observed, all that did was teach her how to spell. Sometimes she decides on her own that she's been a good dog & will poke me in the ribs with her nose, then run over & poke the cabinet door. She won't stop until you give her a treat either.

4. Name five things around your computer. My smokes, an ashtray, Mike's huge pile of mail, dark chocolate candy bars, and uh...let's see....a photo scanner.

5. Name five things in your medicine cabinet. We don't have one so ha haha haha ha.

I know, that was kinda lame, but I've got to get back to a legal seminar. It would be very naughty for me to take my programming homework so I'd have something interesting to do, wouldn't it?

I didn't think so.

Costs of Drug Legalization

Susanna has an excellent post about the costs and effects on society of drug legalization.

It's a must-read.

So That's What Happened

Our sites were down when we got home yesterday evening, as were many of our favorites. Dean has an explanation here and here. The world is just full of shitheads, isn't it?

A big thanks to the folks at Hosting Matters for all their hard work getting us back online....and I hope y'all get the bastards.

Wow

Tony's found something that, if true, could be a deathknell for Clark's campaign.

Wesley's got some 'splaining to do.

Happy Birthday to Jim!

Yesterday was Jim's birthday, another terrific Libran. Go tell him "Happy Birthday".

Well, Duh

Syria has agreed to support our UN resolution regarding Iraq, which means we'll have the unanimous support of the UN Security Council....since France, Germany & Russia have already agreed to support the resolution.

For what it's worth.

Even my grandson could figure that one out.

Writing. Wall. See?

Suspicions Confirmed

Art critics have confirmed what I've always suspected....they're full of crap. (Link via Fark)

Random Linkage

--It's only a game, Chris.

--We need more stories like this.

While father lay in the gutter in front of the sewer retching up blood and pus and old copies of Finnegan’s Wake and swearing that he, too, would die for Ireland as soon as he finished puking, off we went to the church, where we were greeted by a fine strapping nun who kicked us all in the groin, including Mother, and told us rats were off but we were welcome to half a beetle she had found in a mound of dung.

--Things that seem like a good idea, but aren't. Trust me.

--I think I can safely speak for all mothers out there and say "Welcome to our world." (Dammit man, fix your links. In the interim, please scroll down to "On disgusting".)

S.I. Ferry Accident

We took the ferry over to Staten Island to get married, so we were particularly horrified to hear of yesterday's accident, which appears to have been caused by human error.

Those poor people. I can only imagine what that must've been like.

Our thoughts & prayers go out to their families.

Well, Well

Now US citizens are being asked to leave the Gaza Strip.

Several hours after the bombing, U.S. investigators were attacked by Palestinian stone throwers and sped away as their cars were pelted by rocks.

Diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said U.S. citizens were asked to leave the volatile strip, but details of the order were not immediately available.

Brings to mind that old Chinese proverb:

Be careful what you wish for.

Need an IT Job?

NW Arkansas is the place to be. I just got this morning's results from a little job scout I have running, and there's 22 IT positions open for everything from help desk support to programmers to architects.

If you're interested, leave me your e-mail & I'll forward the info to you.

Just part of my plan to take over the world.

Major Error

A US diplomatic convoy has been attacked in the Gaza Strip.

A roadside bombing rocked a U.S. diplomatic convoy in the Gaza Strip Wednesday, killing at least two Americans and wounding four others, Fox News has learned.

It is unclear right now how many were killed, but it appears the convoy was deliberately targeted by a roadside bomb.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia denounced the attack. "We strongly condemn this incident and we will conduct an investigation and we will follow it to find the source of this attack," he told reporters in the West Bank.

Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said in to a television station that the Americans were in Gaza to monitor the peace process. "These are American martyrs that came here at Palestinian request," he said.

I suspect trying to stop the security fence is going to be the least of their problems now. And I'm curious to see how the Palestinian apologists are going to spin this one.

It'll be a tough sell.

Almost Amusing

Mike's attracted a troll. Remember the rules for trolls....keep them away from water & never feed them after midnight. Oh wait that's gremlins.

Oh yeah, now I remember. You can point & laugh, but don't talk to them.

That's it.

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

Have you seen these?

Some Americans are turning to an inexpensive and controversial way of customizing their cars: applying stickers of bullet holes.

Ah, yeah. Isn't that special? I saw a pickup this summer that had these plastered all across the tailgate....as well as a Confederate flag sticker.

Pretty much told me all I needed to know about the driver.

But not in a good way.

More Later

I hope to be posting more regularly now that I'm getting caught up with my schoolwork and getting the hang of typing on my laptop with this stupid wrist splint on.

Yes I know I'm not supposed to be doing that. I run with scissors and frequently color outside the lines too.

Just part of my charm.

Interesting Session

The upcoming US Supreme Court session looks to be an interesting one. (Link via Fark) Some of the cases they'll be hearing include the constitutionality of the "under God" part of the Pledge of Allegiance and the new anti-child p0rn legislation.

Any predictions on how they'll rule?

Here's The Deal

Our MT upgrade has been installed, and I've re-enabled comments. However, for now you will not be allow to use HTML in the comments. Sorry. I plan to allow HTML eventually, but first I want to install an anti-spam hack or two I've found. But not today. I seem to be particularly thick-witted this morning, as I can't even figure out how to turn off comments on old posts....probably because most of my brain is still engaged trying to figure out a programming assignment I got stuck on yesterday. It was very frustrating to not be able to write a simple little program that calculates change due from a dollar, broken down into the numbers of various coins when I can do that automatically in my head faster than the computer so why can't I write a program that does something so stupid simple? And it simply does no good to beat my head on my desk yelling "No no you idiot computer! You do not give back 1 quarter, 1 dime and 1 nickel when $0.65 is tendered!"

Any suggestions or helpful hints for closing comments or combating spam will be appreciated.

If I Had A Nickel....

....for every time I've had this conversation, I could buy a new car. Or something.

Sheesh.

Armed Robbery Foiled

A Fort Smith pharmacist stopped an armed robbery attempt Friday night.

"This guy came in with a handkerchief over his face and said this was a hold up and to get on the ground," said Kelly Yarbrough, recounting the events of Friday night.

Pharmacist John Hadley was only a few feet away when the man first pointed the gun at Kelly, then at him. "When I saw he had a gun, it was pointed at me, so I just shot at him," said Hadley.

Unfortunately, Hadley missed, and the would-be robber ran away.

"The gun jammed after the first shot, you know, or we could have popped off ten rounds," Hadley said with a touch of regret.

Maintenance, maintenance, maintenance. If you're gonna use a semi-automatic, you gotta keep it clean.

Better luck next time.

Of Trolls and Spambots

We spent the weekend combating spambots & trolls....as did many of you. Changes are in the works, and I hope to have comments back up in a day or so. In the meantime, feel free to e-mail me.

I'll be installing a script to prohibit posting by spambots. If it works, I'll post the link to its creator in case any of you want to use it too.

Trolls on the other hand will have their comments edited by me. After all, their pathetic attempts to get attention are neither creative nor interesting. I am both.

Heh.

Comments Disabled

Sorry, but comments will be disabled for the immediate future. I've been hit by p0rn spammers.

I am not amused. I intend to see that they're prosecuted, if at all possible.

Naughty Me

I've been a very bad girl. You may have noticed I haven't been posting too regularly this last week. Well, about a week ago, after I helped one of my DHS workers sort through this huge stack of paperwork, I got this really weird knot on my wrist.

It hurt. It hurt bad. It didn't go away. Then this morning, while I was IM'ing with my son, I started getting another one on the other side of the same wrist. So I went to the doctor, stuck my swollen, knotty wrist in his face and said This Really Freaking Hurts. Make. It. Go. Away. Now.

Diagnosis: ganglion cyst on the tendon in my wrist, caused by overuse. Now I'm in a wrist splint. I'm not supposed to use my laptop. Typing is verboten, as is about a jillion other things that I have to do every day. Complete wrist rest. (Try saying that 5 times real fast)

On the bright side, and there always is one, I'll bet if I put a roll of dimes in the palm of my splint I could cold-cock an ox with my left hook.

Heh. I wonder what other creative uses I can find for this annoying thing.

Friday Five

1. Do you watch sports? If so, which ones? Of course. Boxing is one of my favorites. I usually watch the World Series and the NAACC basketball finals....occasionally college football.....horse racing and NASCAR. I even like to watch professional bowling and pool. And I would watch the Olympics 24/7 if they still broadcasted it like that.

2. What/who are your favorite sports teams and/or favorite athletes? Don't really have one since Butterbean stopped boxing. I mean, how could you not love a boxer named Butterbean?

3. Are there any sports you hate? Not really, though there's some I find boring....like golf. Or football.

4. Have you ever been to a sports event? I rarely missed any of my kids' basketball games, even though I was in law school at the time. (Which probably explains my grades.) My kids were always involved in sports, b-ball, track, softball/baseball, football....and I most always made it to their games/meets. My daughter's b-ball team finished 2nd in the state her senior year, which was exciting. I've seen the Razorbacks play a couple of times, gone to the races at Oaklawn. I've always wanted to go to a minor league baseball game, but haven't made it yet. I also used to go watch my aunt drive her car in quarter-mile dirt track races.

5. Do/did you play any sports (in school or other)? How long did you play? I played basketball from the third grade on. It was back in the old days when girls played half-court. I was a post guard. My knees still remind me of those days. I played on a softball team one year when the kids where little. I sucked, I played right field, what does that tell you? But it was fun.

Hooray!

Keith has started posting again!

Let the wild rumpus begin!

Frankenstein Principle

Love what you create, or it will destroy you. (Link via the Professor)

A man who cannot fill a campaign, cannot fill a cabinet. A man who cannot run a campaign, cannot run the government. A man who cannot obey the law, cannot uphold the law.

A-yup.

Late Night Surprises

Last night, after our test, my networking class was interrupted by school security who informed us the school was being evacuted due to a "toxic gas" leak. I grabbed my backpack & got the hell out of there. I suspect it was a natural gas leak from the smell once we got outside. Haven't seen anything in the local news about the school exploding, so I guess they got everything fixed.

At any rate, I got to come home early and found that my husband had installed a webcam for me. That was so cool! When my son got online later, we had so much fun with it. He has one too, as does a friend of his that I'd met while my son was in boot camp. So the three of us were mugging for the cameras and generally acting silly for quite a while. Sollie even got in on the fun, which was a hoot.

Technology just amazes me. So does my husband.

I'm a lucky gal.

Study Time

There was a fundraiser at school this morning for one of the student groups....Krispy Kreme donuts. I wasn't able to make it (work reared its ugly head), but my daughter thoughtfully bought me a dozen.

Whatta kid! A whole box of 12 donuts of my very own on which to munch while I study this afternoon....uh, 11....10 donuts.

Mmmmm.....donuts.

Absolutely

Mike's been telling me this for a while now, and now it's official.

Thanks to Matt for the link.

He Who Laughs Last

You know that "new & improved" software on music CD's thats supposed to keep you from copying them. Guess what?

A Princeton graduate student said on Monday that he has figured out a way to defeat new software intended to keep music CDs from being copied on a computer -- simply by pressing the Shift-key. (link via Fark)

Too funny.

DoNotCall On Again

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the FTC may "enforce the national "do-not-call" registry while an appeals court considers whether it violates telemarketers' free-speech rights".

Sweet.

Hillary for Prez Update

Sky News is reporting that Hillary will announce her candidacy for President next week.

If she does, what do you bet the field gets narrowed down real quick? My guess is we'll see a Hillary/Clark ticket.

The Democratic primary may be interesting after all.

UPDATE: This was an older story from Sky News, (many thanks for pointing out my mistake, Cracker Barrel Philosopher !) and Instapundit now says that someone else filed for Hillary. So she's not running....so far.

Dang it! Now I've no excuse to not study this afternoon.

Is This For Real?

Holy shitbird, Batman! Apparently Hillary filed Friday with the FEC as a presidential candidate for 2004. Unfortuately, the FEC server seems to be suffering from an Instalanche, as I haven't been able to get to her alleged financial filing...yet.

Late birthday present? Early Christmas present? It's both!

Heh.

Is It Just Me?

Or do I sound a lot like her this morning?

She is my hero after all....I want to be just like her when I get old.

Ha! Now that's comedy!

A Little Too Ironic

The George Bush Award for Excellence in Public Service will be given next month to the first American to ever receive it.

The winner is Ted Kennedy.

Now there's enough irony to choke a horse, isn't it?

News and Non-News

Being a native Arkansan, the big deal that everyone's making out of this took me by surprise.

The campaign of Mr. Clark, whose fealty was questioned by some party members, filed the candidate's signed affidavit at the Pulaski County, Ark., elections office to change his voter registration from unaffiliated to Democrat.

Big deal. We haven't registered for parties in years. In fact, the last primary I can remember registering for was way back in the early 80's....I registered as a Democrat so I could vote for a particular candidate in the local sheriff's primary race. My dad, a lifelong hardcore partyline Republican, almost had a stroke. Heh.

But that's Arkansas politics. For many of us in the masses, party affiliation has always been a bit...flexible. So I didn't think it abnormal that Gen. Clark was registered as an independent. Lots of folks 'round here are.

But what I did find interesting was this:

Mr. Clark was a lobbyist for Acxiom Corp., a Little Rock, Ark.-based data management company. A company spokesman said Mr. Clark was paid $300,000 for his work in 2002 and a prorated portion of $150,000 this year.

Mr. Clark is also an Acxiom board member, having joined in December 2001.

Acxiom was named in a federal complaint from the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which asserted that the company sold the demographic information of nearly 2 million airline passengers. It denied any wrongdoing.

Now that's news.

A Gentle Reminder

Lawsuits like this is one of the primary reasons I quit my general civil practice.

I refuse to depose a parrot.

It's True

Apparently you can buy damn near anything on the Internet....except replacement covers for the foglamps on my car.

Those I can't find.

Guess What?

I almost forgot. Today's my one year blogiversary. Yay me! I've had paying jobs I didn't stick with this long.

Now if you'll excuse me, since Mike wouldn't let me quit school today, I have to go finish my homework.

Fat Chance

Syria seeks condemnation of Israeli airstrike. Do they really think they're going to get that from any country that matters? I think not. Israel's UN ambassador said it best.

"There are few better exhibits of state sponsorship for terrorism than the one provided by the Syrian regime," he said.

"Syria would do well to take a hard look at the mirror and count itself fortunate that it has not yet, for unfortunate reasons, been the subject of concerted international action as part of the global campaign against terrorism," Gillerman said. "Not yet."

Syria might want to take a hint this time.

Dirty Politics

The upcoming California recall election has been most instructive in the art of dirty politics since Arnold began leading in the polls, hasn't it? First we have the now-famous "I admire Hitler" statement, which was, as Rosemary points out, a horrendous misquote. What he actually said was this:

"In many ways I admired people — It depends for what. I admired Hitler for instance because he came from being a little man with almost no formal education, up to power. And I admire him for being such a good public speaker and for his way of getting to the people and so on. But I didn't admire him for what he did with it."

I see nothing wrong with that statement. Ever watch tapes of his speeches? Hitler was a master orator. If he hadn't been, he would've never been able to get people to do the horrible things that he did....because he was such a pathetic sick little twerp otherwise.

And now there's the grab ass sexual misconduct charges suddenly surfacing right before the election...which are pretty funny coming from the party of Bill "Oral sex isn't really sex" Clinton and Ted "Let's take a swim in the channel" Kennedy.

Don't get me wrong, I don't condone that type of behavior from anyone. But it seems to me from all reports that this happened a long time ago, and it doesn't appear to be the type of behavior Arnold engages in now.

They're going to have to come up with something better to defeat Arnold at this point....perhaps they should try promoting better economic policies.

Like that'll happen.

Thanks!

A big thanks to everyone for the happy birthday wishes. They were much appreciated. I had a great birthday, complete with my daughter getting the waitresses to sing Happy Birthday to me in front of God & everybody at my birthday dinner. At least they sang it in Japanese. (I'm assuming that's what their song was anyway.) I'm still thinking of ways to "repay" my daughter for that.

As you could tell, I took a couple of days off to enjoy the occasion. Regular posting will resume as soon as I find something interesting to talk about.

Rogue Agency?

Rep. Peter King (R. NY) raises another issue about the whole "leak" kerfuffle in this morning's NYPost.

My concern is about something far more ominous. It is what I see to be a systematic pattern of conduct being carried out by elements within the Central Intelligence Agency constituting a virtual covert operation against the Bush White House - a covert operation designed to protect the spy agency's turf and deflect charges of incompetence.

Now he could just be blowing partisan smoke here, but he does quote some interesting things to support his position.

* In the spring of 2002, when the CIA was coming under increasing scrutiny for its pre 9/11 failures, a memo was leaked suggesting the CIA had warned President Bush of the terrorist attacks more than a month prior to 9/11 and that he failed to take any action.

* In July of this year, Wilson charged in print and in repeated TV appearances that President Bush had lied to the American people in his State of the Union speech when he said the British government had learned that Iraq was attempting to purchase enriched uranium from Niger for its nuclear program. Wilson claimed he was basing his allegations on a secret mission to Niger he had carried out for the CIA last year

This could explain why Wilson was the one sent by the CIA to investigate the Niger/uranium claim, I suppose. Because his selection makes no sense to me at all. Why him, of all people?

My Chair

Jim's post about sitting in his rocking chair watching "Howdy Doody" brought back so many memories that I thought I'd break my policy of not ever posting photos of myself to share one of my favorites.

But as you'll see, at the tender age of 2, watching tv wasn't very high on my list of things I liked to do.

Not me. I liked to pretend I could read.

My mother says I had memorized 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, and would sit in my little chair and "read" the entire book. Over and over and over. It was my favorite book.

I still have the book, though it looks a bit well-loved. And my mom still has my rocking chair, which survived me, my kids and now my grandson uses it. I don't mind sharing my chair with them. But somewhere at my mom's there's a group photo of me and some of my cousins in which I'm standing by my chair, clutching the arm tightly and looking really pissed. My mom once wondered why I looked so angry in the photo. I explained that _she_ made me let one of my cousin's sit in my rocking chair for the photo, which made me mad because that was MY chair, dammit.

I play much better with others nowdays. And this Christmas, WildChild and I will sit in my grown-up rocking chair and read my favorite book.

Over and over and over.

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to me!
I'm now 43!
....??

You guys can finish it for me. I'm not awake enough yet.

Dang It!

I always miss the good stuff. Yesterday was officially Ozark Natural Foods Co-op Day here in our little town. Ozark Natural Foods, for those of you who don't know, is a little organic food hippie-dippie co-op down on Dickson Street.

And y'all thought I was being facetious when I wrote that the city would wholeheartedly support Rainbow's House of Tofu on a Stick.

Fortunately to offset this travesty, this weekend is the annual Bikes, Blues and BBQ motorcycle rally and music festival down on Dickson. If you're gonna be in town, you shouldn't miss it.

It's a real treat.

Thanks, CNN

A little town near where I grew up was featured yesterday on CNN in a travel destination piece....cleverly entitled "Pickin' and Grinnin'". Yeah, that's just what we need, more publicity as a bunch of gap-toothed hillbilly musicians. Thanks.

But if you like folk music, Mountain View is a good place to visit....even if many of the musicians aren't really from Arkansas, like the guy CNN interviewed, who's a transplanted Cajun.

I got a big laugh from the end of the article though. They quote the transplanted Cajun, a Mr. Sapp, as saying "It's relaxed here. No pressure. No drunks. It's good clean family entertainment."

You know why there's not many drunks hanging around the town square? Because the nearest liquor store is a good 30 mile drive away.

I should know. I used to be a co-owner of it.

Heh.

Happy Birthday To You!

It's Paul's 26th birthday today, so go wish him a happy one.

Just A Little Longer

Just talked to my daughter, who aced two difficult exams in nursing school last week and of whom I'm so very proud, and she tells me northbound traffic is waaaaayyy backed up on I-540. So I'll have to leave soon or I'll be late for my evening class.

*sigh* They keep saying "Just a little longer and we'll be done with the construction." Which I've decided means the same thing as when I would tell my son to clean his room and he'd say "In just a minute"....meaning some indefinite time in the very distant future.

Will no one rid me of those meddlesome orange barrels?!?

21st Century Toyko Rose?

Robert Novak writes that the whole Plame "scandal" is baseless. (Link via Instapundit) There was no leak.

The leak now under Justice Department investigation is described by former Ambassador Wilson and critics of President Bush's Iraq policy as a reprehensible effort to silence them. To protect my own integrity and credibility, I would like to stress three points. First, I did not receive a planned leak. Second, the CIA never warned me that the disclosure of Wilson's wife working at the agency would endanger her or anybody else. Third, it was not much of a secret.

Plame was listed in Who's Who's as Wilson's wife for goodness sakes. And from all accounts, she's a desk jockey, not Le Femme Nikita.

Novak also raises a more interesting question.

I was curious why a high-ranking official in President Bill Clinton's National Security Council (NSC) was given this assignment. Wilson had become a vocal opponent of President Bush's policies in Iraq after contributing to Al Gore in the last election cycle and John Kerry in this one.

Yes, not only has Wilson donated to Kerry's campaign, he's also met with some of Kerry's advisors. And then there's Wilson's latest quote:

"Neo-conservatives and religious conservatives have hijacked this administration, and I consider myself on a personal mission to destroy both." (Links via Right Wing News)

Perhaps Toyko Rose might be a more apt analogy for Ms. Plame and spouse.

God's Little Gift?

Dr. Laura sezs husbands are a gift from God....which reminded me of my exs which in turn reminded me of the South Park episode in which Kyle is questioning why he got hemorroids and Cartman got a million dollars.

At least I feel more like Cartman this time around.

It's Official

Frontline Voices has been officially launched.

Go read and/or contribute.

It's a good thing.

PC Silliness

This is just silly....a local college, U of A at Fort Smith, has banned witches and devils from campus Halloween decorations.

Dean of students, Ken Pyle says they want to make the event welcoming for all and having characters associated with witchcraft might keep some people away.

"Crazy looking animal faces and there's a lot of masks out there that can leave people pretty scary [sic], scared that don't have anything to do with witches or devils," says Pyle.

True, but I'd take a witch or a devil over a Furry any day. Besides, it's All Hallow's Eve, it's supposed to be scary.

Sheesh.