Res Ipsa Loquitur

Inside Out

You should go read this. Right. Now.

And to Daniel, its author, I can only say I don't sleep well these days myself....for much the same reasons.

Down On the Farm

I ran across this photo this morning while working on my Web Page Design project and thought I'd share. This is me:

This was taken last year down on our farm. Mike & I had ridden my dad's 4-wheeler down there. I had just about scared the pants off of Mike, who was riding pilllion, by taking off like a bat out of hell across the hay field. I didn't mean to, I just thought it would be fun. It was.

Back behind me under the bluff is the entrance to a large (and beautiful) cave....the reason we have so many problems with trespassers down there. What you can't see in the photo is the pistol on my right hip....you never know what or whom you'll find there.

As we all know, it's a shame the things you see when you don't have a gun.

Random Gardening Thoughts

Took a break from working on finals this morning to plant about 3 dozen gladiolus bulbs. It occurred to me when I dug up an anthill that I didn't know was in my flowerbed that ants, no matter how numerous they become, will never take over the world. They're just too easily confused. See, they get around by following either another ant's scent or the scent of food. Take them out of familiar surroundings, with neither scent to follow, and they just run in circles....frantically yelling "HEY! HEY! WHERE'D EVERYBODY GO?" Until you mash 'em with your trowel that is.

And earthworms just don't have the motivation. Sure they get all indignant when you dig them up, but all they try to do is escape back into the ground so they can lie around and eat dirt or whatever it is that worms do.

I think finals are getting to me this semester.

"I Will Fight At Home..."

I ran across this letter while Googling for something completely different yesterday.....and it's haunted me ever since. (Warning: if you follow the link, there's about a zillion pop-ups. The letter is contained in the leftmost frame) The letter is dated December 24, 1917, and is from a Bettie Lyons in California to a Mrs. Dillard back here in Arkansas. In the letter, Mrs. Lyons talks about the first of her sons to get called up for WWI....in her words I hear the echoes of things my grandmother told me about when my dad was drafted. And her words also echo many of my own thoughts about my son's service.

"Dear Lizzie, I am glad that none of your boys have had to go to the training camp yet. I have one that's gone, my oldest. He was called the fourth of Oct. to Camp Lewis, American Lake, Washington. If he could of gone to a camp here in his own country it wouldn't of been so bad. The training is good. Every boy in the good old U.S.A. needs a good military training. But, oh, the possibility of them having to go to France. Then my heart will break. I have four boys and, if the war lasts, it will get them all for my baby will be 21 in April.

I have lived for nothing but my children for so long that it seems cruel for them to have to be called away like that. But with the help of the Good Lord and the love of our country, I will do like thousands of other poor mothers- I will fight at home while they fight abroad."

Some things speak for themselves.

Ridiculous Lawsuit

This has got to be one of the more ridiculous lawsuits I've ever seen.

The mother of a Helen Tyson Middle School sixthgrader has sued Principal Curtis Spann and teacher Virginia Hargrove for their decision not to grant her son full credit for reading two Harry Potter books.

Luwalhati Admana Johnson, a Tontitown lawyer, filed a petition April 20 in Washington County Circuit Court stating that school officials did not award her son all the points possible for reading J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban as part of an accelerated reading program the 1,133-pupil school sponsors. Pupils in the sixth- and seventh-grade middle school accumulate points for reading books and receive prizes for their achievements at the end of the school year. Johnson’s petition indicates the child did not receive points because Hargrove and Spann determined the child did not meet requirements of the program.

What requirements?

She doesn’t say exactly what requirement he didn’t meet but alludes to the possibility her son was accused of cheating. By not receiving points for the Potter books, Johnson’s son will "graduate sixth grade without the earned points and recognition of an achievement much valued by the child," the petition states.

In addition, the petition says, "The rumor that the petitioner cheated will be deemed true, follow the child in the seventh grade and his older years, and his integrity remains destroyed."

Yeah, that definitely violates several Arkansas statutes. Not.

I can't wait until Judge Gunn (aka 'Hanging Judge Gunn' *) gets this one.

[The school's attorney] Harwell said Circuit Judge Mary Ann Gunn will either call a hearing or rule on the petitions already filed. Gunn should decide early next week, a clerk in her office said.

I'll just bet she will. The county should charge admission to that hearing.

I'd pay to see it.

*This should not be taken as any disparagement of Judge Gunn, who has a reputation as a tough, but fair judge. She just doesn't tolerate fools.

I wish we had more like her.

Another One Bites the Dust

Another local restaurant is closing its doors.

John Gilliam, owner of the Ozark Brewing Co., told his employees Sunday of his intentions to cease restaurant and brewery operations May 9. "I’ve just had enough," Gilliam said Wednesday. "I’ve been doing this basically for 10 years, and it’s time for me to do something different. The market has changed."

Consistency problems and employee issues, Gilliam said, led to his decision, along with decreased clientele during the streetscape construction project and the effects of a citywide smoking ban in public places, including restaurants.

The Brew Pub, as it's know locally, instituted its own semi-smoking ban about 2-3 yrs. ago or so. You could only smoke at the bar....where the food service was abysmal and the patrons were their rowdiest. That's when we stopped going there. Looks like we weren't the only ones.

Sales at the brewing company declined in the past three years, reaching approximately $1.54 million in 2003. From December 2003 through March 2004, the company reported sales of $403,924. "The final straw was the smoking issue," Gilliam said. "That took the wind out of the alcohol sales."

It was also directly responsible for the closing of another landmark restaurant, Jerry's, a longtime favorite Dickson St. breakfast hangout. The owners started looking for a buyer as soon as the whole anti-smoking thing started, since most of their restaurant was the always-packed smoking section. So that's at least 2 closings in about as many months since the smoking ban went into effect. But city officials don't see a problem.

Bill Ramsey, president of the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, said a vacant building is aesthetically unpleasant but presumed the site would be filled soon because of its proximity to the arts center and location at the intersection of Dickson Street and West Avenue. "(An empty building) always has an effect, but I don’t anticipate that being long-range," he said. "It’s such a choice location, there’s going to be a lot of people looking at that spot. I just hope we can keep it homeowned and homegrown and keep the character of Dickson Street.

" It’s not good news, but I anticipate it being a shortterm situation. "

The sun'll come out tomorrow, right?

From what I saw the last time we ate down there and from word on the street, the changes to the character of Dickson Street aren't going to be what was intended. Bars where smoking is allowed are packed. Restaurants are not....except the ones with outdoor patio dining (smoking allowed), which is where we ate. And the whole time we were there, we were treated to the constant whining from nonsmokers about having to walk through smoke to get into the restaurant....never mind that there's another entrance that's smoke-free. So I suspect that'll be the next thing to go.

You generally get the behavior what you reward, and it looks like bars are the only businesses to really benefit from the smoking ban. Perhaps another, more profitable bar will move into the vacant Brew Pub building across from the 'highbrow' Walton Arts Center....one in which lots of $1 bills change, uh, hands. So to speak.

That'd be sweet justice, wouldn't it?

Time For a Change

And now for something completely different:

See my 'mater.

And here's Sassy:

And Sollie in attack mode:

Because you know, cameras are dangerous and frequently attack pugs.

Now back to my finals.

Myth Meets Reality

John "I don't own an SUV but my wife has several" Kerry is starting to look unelectable....in every way.

"I gave back, I can't remember, six, seven, eight, nine medals," Kerry said in an interview with WRC-TV, a Washington, D.C., station on Nov. 6, 1971, ABC News reported. Kerry previously had told the network that stories about him tossing medals were a "myth."

When asked if he disposed of his Bronze Star, Silver Star and three Purple Hearts received as a Navy lieutenant in Vietnam, he replied, "Well, and above that. [I] gave back the others."

I guess by "gave back" he meant "hung them on the wall of his senatorial office".

What amazes me the most about Kerry is how he repeatedly makes these kinds of misstatements like half the country isn't just waiting to fact-check his ass.

Buy a clue with your wife's money.

Hi-ho

It's off to work I go. They've added "The Star-Spangled Banner" to the canned playlist at work. Last night, every time it would play, I would check my watch to see if it wasn't time to go home because obviously the tv was going off the air. Then as it ended, I would have to catch myself before I yelled out "PLAY BALL!"

Does that make me a bad person?

Bad Idea

Yeah, let's nationalize healthcare like Canada did.

A 21-year-old man died of appendicitis after he was refused treatment at an emergency clinic because he didn't have his provincial health card with him.

Gerald Augustin complained of stomach pains on Thursday but the receptionist at the St-Andre medical centre told him he had to return home to get his health card. He didn't make it back to the clinic in Montreal's east end.

The hospital's comment?

Rouslene Augustin, administrator at the St-Andre clinic, said the man didn't appear to have any urgent symptoms when he came to the clinic.

"I don't see what we did wrong. I'm not defending the clinic, we just followed the rules."

And these rules allow receptionists to perform triage because???

Death in Afghanistan

There's been an unconfirmed report that Pat Tillman has been killed in Afghanistan.

Former professional football star Pat Tillman, who gave up a $3.6 million sports contract to join the military's elite special forces, has been killed in a firefight in Afghanistan, a U.S. official said on Friday.

Not many other details were given, and again there's been no official confirmation so far.

Our condolences to his family if it's true.

From Tiny Acorns

I was channel-surfing after the storms blew through last night and happened on the end of this documentary about "The Steve Show". "The Steve Show" was a Little Rock tv station's teen dance program back in the late '50s & early '60s....predating "American Bandstand". Interesting show, especially the interviews with the famous (Bill Clinton, Wesley Clark) who remember watching it faithfully, and the not-so-well-known participants.

With one exception. One regular on the show credited his participation with getting him interested in the media as a career. You prolly know him. CNN's Bob Franken.

So the next time you see ol' Bob, remember he got his start jitterbugging on a little Arkansas tv station.

Kinda hard to imagine, isn't it?

Bughole Night

Last night was best spent in the bughole, wasn't it Matt? (That's a storm cellar for all you non-hillbillies) Tornadoes were popping up everywhere in Oklahoma yesterday afternoon when I arrived home from work. I was glued to the radar until Mike got home, then we spent a fun 10 minutes amidst the rain & lightning trying to fit 3 cars in a 1 car carport.....baseball-sized hail was predicted but never materialized.

The worst of the storm passed by on the other side of the mountain from us, so we dodged the bullet again. There were reports of a couple of funnels close to Matt & Vicky's house though.

Springtime in NW Arkansas....never a dull moment.

Changing Times

This blast from the past caught my eye in this morning's local news.

100 years ago April 22, 1904 EUREKA SPRINGS — An unknown visitor who, with a companion, was using vulgar and profane language on Spring Street, was chastised by the Rev. Mr. Keen, pastor of the M. E. Church. The pastor called attention to the fact that they were obstructing the passage of and offending a group of ladies.

He's lucky that all he got was 'chastised' by the local preacher. It hasn't been all that long ago in my culture that such behavior would've, at best, triggered a severe beating from any nearby real man....and as recently as my dad's generation, was foundation for justifiable homicide. Swearing in the presence of someone's wife was the ultimate transgression, as it implied one's wife was a woman of loose morals.

My generation has Howard Stern.

All change isn't good.

Weapons Headed for Vermont

7,500 assault weapons seized in Italy the other day were apparently headed for Vermont.

Officials have linked Century International Arms Inc. in Boca Raton to the discovery of a cache of 7,500 AK-47s hidden beneath piles of properly labeled arms in several cargo containers confiscated in the port of Gioia Tauro in southern Italy several days ago....Investigators determined the ultimate destination of the ship's stash of combat-style weapons was Century's giant warehouse in Fairfax, Vt., near the Canadian border, sources said.

It's not clear at this point who was actually involved in importing the illegal weapons....or to whom they were to be sold.

Pretty scary.

Ketchup Funds

While Kerry may have access to his wife's millions, he apparently doesn't get any funding from the Heinz corp.

A look at the company's campaign donations shows a preference for Republicans. In the past six years, the Heinz company's political action committee gave more than $64,000 to Republican candidates, nearly three times the amount given to Democrats. It contributed $5,000 to Mr. Bush's campaign. It has shunned the Kerry campaign, but the PAC gave $5,000 to the Massachusetts Democratic Party.

So if you like Heinz ketchup, it's ok. You're not really funding the Kerry campaign if you buy it. Well, except for the fact that Mrs. Kerry still owns about $4M in the company stock....a mere drop in the bucket.

Don't you feel better now?

Meme Time

Today's meme is pretty simple:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 23.
3. Post the 5th sentence and these instructions.

Oy, are you gonna regret reading this.

"This chapter focuses on issues that auditors should consider when developing an Internet policy, and provides a sample Internet policy as a benchmark for the policy development process."

The Privacy Papers: Managing Technology, Consumer, Employee and Legislative Actions, Rebecca Herold Editor.

It's a real page-turner, let me tell you.

Rank Cowards

They've struck again, this time in Basra.

Suicide bombers killed at least 68 people, some of them children, in co-ordinated strikes on four police stations that inflicted bloody chaos on Iraq's southern city of Basra Wednesday, officials said....Among the dead were children going to school in a minibus that was incinerated in one of the car bombings.

Cowards.

Merely a Flesh Wound

Kerry's releasing records pertaining to his 3 Purple Hearts....sorta.

The Kerry campaign emerged from its bunker yesterday to give the Associated Press 13 pages of records that already had been distributed and documented two of Mr. Kerry's Purple Hearts, his Silver Star and his Bronze Star.

The documents include declassified reports that explain Mr. Kerry's wounds that led to two of his Purple Hearts. They show Mr. Kerry had shrapnel wounds in his left thigh after his boat came under intense fire on Feb. 20, 1969, and he suffered shrapnel wounds in his left buttocks and bruises on his right forearm when a mine detonated close to his boat on March 13, 1969.

Ok, so he was hit in the ass a couple of times. Fair enough I suppose. But what about the first medal?

The documents do not include, however, a report explaining how Mr. Kerry received the wounds that led to his first Purple Heart.

To back up Mr. Kerry's injury claims leading to that award, campaign spokesman Michael Meehan showed the Associated Press at the Kerry campaign headquarters a "Sick Call Treatment Record" dated Dec. 9, 1968.

That document, which the campaign would not release or allow to be copied, said: "Shrapnel in left arm above elbow. Shrapnel removed and appl bacitracin dressing. Ret to Duty," according to the Associated Press.

Seems no one can find the documentation about this 'wound'. Ok, Rambo, show us your elbow. I should think a wound serious enough to merit a Purple Heart should leave a scar, right?

Put up or shut up.

'Tis the Season

Spring has sprung and that means only one thing for this neck of the woods:

Tornado season.

There's a tornado watch for here as we speak. Now I've got to head on out for my night class (where I'll be perfectly safe since none of the classrooms have any freaking windows....preparing us, no doubt, for the day when we graduate and become mindless corporate drones), but I thought I'd share a few words of wisdom that I got from my faithful Oklahoma reader Merrily about tornados.

Enjoy.

For those of you who aren't familiar with tornadoes and have heard news
coverage of this, I put together a short glossary to help you understand.

Fujita Scale: Scale used to measure wind speeds of a tornado and their severity.

F1: Laughable little string of wind unless it comes through your house, then enough to make your insurance company drop you like a brick. People enjoy standing on their porches to watch this kind.

F2: Strong enough to blow your car into your house, unless of course you drive an Expedition and live in a mobile home, then strong enough to blow your house into your car.

F3: Will pick your house and your Expedition up and move you to the other side of town.

F4: Usually ranging from 1/2 to a full mile wide, this tornado can turn an Expedition into a Pinto, then gift wrap it in a semi truck.

F5: The Mother of all Tornadoes, you might as well stand on your front porch and watch it, because it's the last thing you will see - and it is impressive.

Meteorologist: A rather soft-spoken, mild-mannered type person until severe weather strikes, and they start yelling at you through the t.v.:
"GET TO YOUR BATHROOM OR YOU'RE GOING TO DIE!"

Storm Chaser: Meteorologist-rejects who are pretty much insane but get us really cool pictures of tornadoes. We release them from the mental institution every time it starts thundering, just to see what they'll do.

Tranquilizer: What you have to give any dog or cat who lived through the May 3rd, 1999 tornado every time it storms or they tear your whole house up freaking out of their minds.

Moore, Oklahoma: A favorite gathering place for tornadoes. They like to meet here and do a little partying before stretching out across the rest of the Midwest.

Bathtub: Best place to seek shelter in the middle of a tornado, mostly because after you're covered with debris, you can quickly wash off and come out looking great.

Severe Weather Radio: A handy device that sends out messages from the
National Weather Service during a storm, though quite disconcerting because the high pitched, shrill noise just as an alarm sounds suspiciously just like a tornado. Plus the guy reading the report just sounds creepy.

Tornado Siren: A system the city spent millions to install, which is really useful, unless there's a storm or a tornado, because then of course you can't hear them.

Storm Cellar: A great place to go during a tornado, as it is almost 100% safe, though weigh your options carefully, as most are not cared for and are homes to rats and snakes.

May-June: Tourist season in Oklahoma, when people who are tired of bungee jumping and diving out of airplanes decide it might be fun to chase a tornado. These people usually end up on Fear Factor.

Barometric Pressure: Nobody really knows what this is, but when it drops a lot of pregnant women go into labor, which makes for exciting moments as their husbands are trying to drive them to the hospital and dodge tornadoes at the same time.

Cars: The worst place to be during a tornado (next to a mobile home). Yes, you can outrun a tornado in your car...unless everybody on the road decides to do the same thing, and then you're in gridlock.

A Ditch: Supposedly where you're supposed to go if you find yourself without shelter or in your car during a tornado. Theoretically the tornado is supposed to pass right over you, but since it can lift a 20 ton truck and up root a three hundred year old tree, I'd bet my life on out-running it in a car.

Mobile Home: Most people are convinced mobile homes send off some strange signal that triggers tornadoes, because if there's one mobile home park in a hundred mile radius, the tornado will find it.

Earthquake: What any Californian would rather go through on any scale of severity than face a tornado.

Tornado: What any Oklahoman would rather go through on any scale of severity than face an earthquake.

Twister: Slang for 'tornado' and also the title to a movie starring Helen Hunt, which incidentally everyone thought was corny and unrealistic until May 3rd, 1999.

Power Flash: One of the most reliable ways to track a tornado at night, it's the term used when the tornado hits a power line and a bright light flashes. It's also the emotion experienced by meteorologists when they get to make the call to
interrupt prime-time must-see t.v. and a million dollars worth of advertising to track a storm for viewers.

Here are some phrases you might want to learn and be familiar with:

"We'll have your electricity restored in 24 hours," which means it'll be a week.

"We're going to be out for a week, so buy a lot of supplies and an expensive generator," means it's going to be on in twelve hours, probably as soon as you return from Wal-Mart.

"It's a little muggy today." Get outta town. It's getting ready to storm.

"There's just a slight chance of severe weather today, so go ahead and make your outdoor plans." Ha. Ha ha ha ha.

Penitent

Just got back from the dentist. Not a bad trip, all things considered. My dentist is a really nice guy, and I've been going there since we moved here in 1993. It's just...well....why is it when you've missed a few visits, you always feel so guilty? It's like I'm suddenly Catholic.

"Forgive me hygenist for I have sinned. It's been 2, uh....ok, 3 years since my last cleaning."

My penance was the extra-painful, more expensive ultrasonic cleaning....to be repeated in 4 weeks.

That'll learn me.

Rumors

Rumors have surfaced about possible tapes of the OKC bombing that show multiple participants.

A Secret Service document written shortly after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing described security video footage of the attack and witness testimony that suggested Timothy McVeigh may have had accomplices at the scene.

Wouldn't surprise me at all. I've never believed he acted alone. Remember John Doe #2....who bears a striking resemblance to this guy?

Coincidence? Maybe. But you know, the radical right and the radical Islamists share some pretty important common goals. Namely, the destruction of the American government and the Jews. It's not so far-fetched that they would form an alliance. And there are at least some indications that McVeigh & Nichols were in places where they could've met....McVeigh's service in Gulf War I and Nichols' Phillipines trip for example.

Now this could all be 'smoke and mirrors' by Nichols' attorneys in an attempt to avoid the death penalty for their client. But I for one would like to see this seriously investigated.

I'm not so sure we're ready for what that investigation would find.

Weird Weekend

This has been a weekend for weirdness and it's not even a full moon. So far this weekend:

• A smelly hippy with a large plastic bag came through our yard & headed for the front door.....where Sassy was chilling on her run. Mike said she chased him halfway across the yard, in full attack mode. She was rewarded with an extra-special Very Good Dog treat: "Frosty Paws" Doggie Ice Cream.

• A customer came through my line carrying a live snake.

• A customer asked me if my braid braided itself as it grew. I managed not to laugh....barely.

• A customer yelled at me because we were out of the dog food he'd been feeding his dog "for the last 20 years". Now that's one old dog, isn't it?
  

I can hardly wait to see what today brings.

More Grey Hair

I made a substantial addition to my grey hair collection yesterday. I arrived home from work to find our front door standing wide open. Dogs were missing, as was my stepdaughter and her car. The latter wasn't too unusual, since Stepdaughter often takes the dogs for a walk in a nearby park. But then I noticed the dogs' leashes were still here.

Instant panic. I of course thought the worst, but a quick search of the house revealed no signs of a struggle or blood. The dogs adore Stepdaughter, so I reasoned they wouldn't have let anyone harm her without a fight. A quick couple of phone calls confirmed Stepdaughter was fine & at the library. Apparently the front door, which doesn't always latch properly, had been blown open by the strong winds in the afternoon.

The dogs were nowhere to be found and had probably been gone for hours.

By this time I've calmed down to a medium-grade panic. My major concern, besides cars, was that pugs are prone to overheating because of their snubbed noses.....and they can die. I knew Sassy could roam for hours, and Sollie would try his damnedest to keep up with her. I quickly searched our immediate neighborhood. No dogs. I searched the cemetery across the road, thinking they might be hanging out at the duck pond. No dogs. Elementary school up the street. No dogs. I returned home to call Animal Control.

Stepdaughter arrived right after I did. She was already on her cellphone with Animal Control. No dogs. She handed the call off to me so I could give them more details, and she left to continue searching. I finished the call, and headed back out to search. Stepdaughter pulls back into the yard and she's laughing.

Sassy is sitting in her front seat, and so is Sollie. Stepdaughter said she found them just a short distance from the house, trotting down the road like Milo & Otis.....all happy with themselves and headed home. She opened her car door & they jumped right in.

We took them inside, I told them that they were Very Bad Dogs. And gave them both treats. Sollie was dangerously close to heat exhaustion, so I had to put him in a tub full of tepid water and cool him off. Which of course he thought was Very Exciting and he ran around the house like a little madman when I got him out of the tub.

Once they had cooled off and eaten, they both stretched out and went to sleep....all worn out by their adventure. It took several hours for my insides to stop shaking.

Little bastards. I didn't know whether to kiss them or kill them.

The Pipes Are Calling

There's an unusual sound frequently heard around Fallujah these days....bagpipes.

Marine First Sergeant Dwayne Farr blows into his set of pipes when he isn't on the front lines. Sometimes he wears his Marine fatigues with his gun at his side; other times he dons a kilt.

Farr is black and from Detroit but says he was inspired by another Marine who didn't fit the Scotsman stereotype. He says if a small Hispanic guy can play the bagpipes, so could he.

Cool.

Commission Conflicts

You've probably read about Ms. Gorelik's conflict of interest....being on a commission questioning the policies that she herself helped implement. But according to this morning's NYPost, there's a much more serious conflict.

As it turns out, the memo is just the tip of the iceberg concerning Gorelick's questionable fitness as a member of the panel.

Though Gorelick may not be litigating the lawsuit, as a partner she profits from her firm's work for the Saudi prince.

The rule is if your law partner has a conflict, you have a conflict. But apparently the Dems don't think there's a problem with her sitting on the 9/11 commission.....or with her potentially being Kerry's A.G.

Ethics are not flexible when they're inconvienent. Wrong is wrong, no matter how you try to paint it.

And this is badly wrong.

Osama Offer

A new alleged Osama tape's out, and he's offering a European truce.

"I offer a truce to them (Europe) with a commitment to stop operations against any state which vows to stop attacking Muslims or interfere in their affairs," the voice said.

"The announcement of the truce starts with the withdrawal of the last soldier from our land and the door is open for three months from the date of the announcement of this statement.

Interesting move. The old "divide & conquer" gambit. The Italians & Brits have already declined his offer, respectively calling it "unthinkable" and an "absurdity". How right they are. One can't negotiate with terrorists any more than one could negotiate with a rabid dog.

Even more interesting is Osama's hit list.

"President (George W.) Bush and leaders in his sphere, big media institutions and the United Nations ... all of them are a fatal danger to the world, and the Zionist lobby is their most dangerous and difficult member, and we insist, God willing, on continuing to fight them," the man on the tape said.

Media institutions? That's the first time I've seen them mentioned. And the UN? Ha. The UN's no threat as long as you keep your hand firmly on your wallet.

The voice said public opinion polls in Europe showed that its people wanted peace and urged scholars, clerics and traders to form a "permanent committee to build awareness among Europeans about the justice of our causes, foremost Palestine."

Hear that, smelly hippies? Your unwavering support of the Palestinian murderers is having an effect....just not an effect any rational person would want.

And so the war continues.

Just Shoot Me Now

If you're wondering at my absence, I'm spending all my free time these days trying to figure out how to use dynamically controlled picture boxes, an array and an image list in Visual Basic.Net to draw the squares for a Concentration game....a project that is due on the 26th.

If you have any idea what that means, for the love of God e-mail me.

If not, well....you're in the same boat as I am.

About Damn Time

I was beginning to think the Dems' efforts to sweep this under a rug would be successful and that this would never happen.

A conservative watchdog group plans to file a formal ethics complaint today against a former Judiciary Committee staffer to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, arguing that the lawyer tried to influence a landmark affirmative action case in which she had participated.

The staffer, Olati Johnson, previously worked as an attorney for the NAACP....the group that represented Michigan students in the race-based admissions case. Ms. Johnson is the author of the infamous 'leaked' memo in which she asked Sen. Kennedy to stall the nomination of a judge to the appeals court which would be hearing the case.

"The thinking is that the current 6th Circuit will sustain the affirmative-action program, but if a new judge with conservative views is confirmed before the case is decided, that new judge will be able, under 6th Circuit rules, to review the case and vote on it," Ms. Johnson wrote to Mr. Kennedy...."Melody and I are a little concerned about the propriety of scheduling hearings based on the resolution of a particular case," she wrote, referring to Melody Barnes, Mr. Kennedy's chief counsel at the time. "Nevertheless, we recommend that Gibbons be scheduled for a later hearing: the Michigan case is important."

Important enough, apparently, to ignore an inconvenient ethics rule.

The cornerstone of Mr. Mazzella's complaint against Ms. Johnson is a section of the New York court's rules of professional conduct stating that a "lawyer serving as a public officer or employee shall not ... [p]articipate in a matter in which the lawyer participated personally and substantially while in private practice or non-governmental employment."

That's what all the uproar about how the memo was leaked (accessed by a Republican staffer from a wide-open shared server) was all about. Deflecting attention away from what the memo really represented:

A blatant ethics violation by the Dems, in an attempt to manipulate the composition of the appeals court in order to win a pending affirmative action case.

And it's about damn time someone called them on it.

News for Family & Friends

Mike's routine colonoscopy this morning was....well, routine. No major problems found, and he's now snoring loudly in our own bed. And since we had to be at the medical center at 6:30 am, I'm fixin' ta go join him in a two-part snoring harmony.

BTW, in case you were wondering, he still loves me more than Demerol. Or so he said. Repeatedly.

15 Minutes

You knew this was coming.

Sony Pictures Entertainment has purchased the film rights to "Against All Enemies," Sony vice chairwoman Amy Pascal told The New York Times for its Saturday editions....The movie version is to be produced by John Calley (search), the entertainment group's former chairman, who worked on the 1976 Watergate drama "All the President's Men" at Warner Brothers.

No word on how much Sony paid for this particular work of fiction.

"Benedict Arnold" Clarification

Kerry's clarified his "Benedict Arnold" corporations remark.

Kerry got pressed on the fact that Heinz has more than 70 percent of its plants in foreign countries as he chatted yesterday with WFAN radio talk-show host Don Imus - a self-proclaimed Kerry backer.

"What I've labeled the 'Benedict Arnolds' are not people who do legitimate business overseas at all and unfortunately in the rhetoric of campaigns, these things sometimes get misinterpreted," said Kerry (D-Mass.)

I see. It's just those companies who move jobs out of the country and pay their workers less. Right?

Heinz owns 79 factories and 57 of them are overseas, with 72 percent of the firm's 38,900 workers outside the United States. They're everywhere from Argentina to Zimbabwe, not to mention Canada, which has taken over some jobs from Buffalo.

Heinz acknowledges that its overseas workers are paid less but says its products are sold overseas for less. The company has stressed that Kerry's wife plays no role in its current management.

Oh, now I see the difference. Not.

Perhaps Kerry needs a new campaign theme song.

Now there's a Google bomb idea.

Encouraging News

The latest news from the Iraq battles is encouraging. We've retaken most of Kut, and there's been a temporary cease-fire in Fallujah. The terrorists have started taking hostages....a sure sign of desperation. And ol' Al-Sadr is saying he'd rather die than be captured.

*shrugs*

Ok. We can do that.

I move that we use the time-honored favorite "gut-shot and left in a mudhole to die like the dog that he is" method.

Show of hands?

Friday Meme Time

I found today's meme over at Da Goddess':

23 Questions.

1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, find line 4. What does it say?

"women. Bonney, as he was called, was no mean gam-" By Sorrow's River, by Larry McMurtry. I haven't read it yet, I'm saving it for Monday, when Mike has some routine medical tests scheduled & I get to be the D.D.F.S.P. (Designated Driver For Sedated Persons)

2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What do you touch first? My almost-empty cup of tea....which means it's almost time for me to stop dicking around on the computer & get started on my homework.

3. What is the last thing you watched on TV? Last night, "Without a Trace" I think it's called, you know, the show about the FBI team that looks for missing persons.

4. WITHOUT LOOKING, can you guess what the time is? 8:30 a.m.

5. Now look at the clock, what is the actual time? 8:53 a.m. Crap, I really do need to get going.

6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear? Birds singing and the window exhaust fan running. And cars going by on the street in front of our house.

7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing? At about 5:30 a.m. I was taking the dogs out.

8. Before you came to this website, what did you look at? Whether or not I still had any tea left in my cup. Isn't this exciting?

9. What are you wearing? My jammies, house slippers, and my bright red fuzzy robe that has pictures of scottish terriers on it. My sis bought it for me for Christmas a couple of years ago.

10. Did you dream last night? Not that I remember. The last dream I remember was a couple of nights ago when I dreamed that Mike & I were fishing, and I caught this huge trout. Mike was going to cook it for supper. I woke up hungry.

11. When did you last laugh? Last night, at something Mike said. No, I'm not telling you what.

12. What is on the walls of the room you are in? White paint. Pictures. A clock. A smoke detector. And a lot of stuff that needs to be washed off that I'd rather not think about.

13. Seen anything weird lately? Sure. It was a full moon last weekend after all. Prolly the weirdest thing I saw was a transvestite buying thong underwear. He (she?) was really nice though....one of my nicer customers that night.

14. What do you think of this quiz? Interesting but not very?

15. What is the last film you saw? In the theater? Matrix: Revolution. I was glad we only paid the matinee price to see it.

16. If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy first? A house with a fenced yard & a doggie door so the dogs could let themselves out. And a hot tub. For us, not the dogs.

17. Can you tell something about you that no one knows? I could, but I'm not gonna.

18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do? Give every child a set of decent parents.

19. Do you like to dance? I adore dancing, especially ballroom dancing. My favorites are the waltz (it's so elegant) and the tango (sexy).

20. George Bush: is he a power-crazy nut case or some one who is finally doing something that has needed to be done for years? The latter. I'll admit, he has surprised me. I didn't think he had it in him. But I'm grateful that he does.

21. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her? She wasn't, but I'd call her the same thing I did call my daughter. I named her after a character on "Soap". And it wasn't Burt.

22. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him? He was, and I named him after an important figure in horse breeding history.

23. Would you ever consider living abroad? Prolly not. I like where I live. Though we occasionally toy with the idea of moving to New Zealand.

A Beautiful Thing

Hope is a beautiful thing. And so is Adam's essay on hope.

Go read.

End of Story

Authorities have discovered what happened to the missing Mr. Throneberry in the Alread fugitive case.

Ted Throneberry’s killers hit him in the head with a sledgehammer, burned his body and scattered his charred remains along a wooded trail before trying to destroy them with a tractor, a prosecutor said Wednesday. "For some reason, certain persons thought they could commit the perfect murder in Van Buren County," said Stephen James, deputy prosecutor for the 20 th Judicial District, "but they were so wrong."

The trio are likely facing charges of "kidnapping, felony capital murder and theft"....and I would guess, the death penalty.

Murder and mayhem in the Ozarks. It's much more rare than you might think.

Velvet Glove

The NYPost has a nice background piece on Condi Rice....including this interesting bit:

And even in her high-profile job she has faced the embarrassment of having a sales clerk in a fancy store show her costume jewelry instead of the real thing and mutter something like "black trash" when she asked to see the real gold.

"It's something that has probably happened to every black person at some point in time. You're not treated as if you are actually a customer. My view is, you just don't let that sort of thing go at all."

A true Southern lady, Ms. Rice. The more I learn about her, the more I admire her.

Now what do you think she's going to do to Richard Clarke Thursday?

Competition

This just in. New research shows women may be competitive. (Via Instapundit)

"A lot of feminists don't want to admit it, but I think there's a lot of competition between women," says Charles Crawford, an evolutionary psychologist at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada. It's natural that this competition should be strongest when fertility is at a peak, he adds.

Well color me unsurprised. As in Freakin' Duh.

Anyone who belives that bullshit about women are cooperative not competitive should spend a few hours backstage at one of those little girl beauty contests. It's quite educational.

Let's be honest, ladies. Women are just as, if not more, competitive as men, they're just not as overt about it. Generally speaking.

Which is why I'd much rather work with men. The knives come from the front, not the back.

Interesting Twist

This morning's news is reporting that both of the Alread fugitives have been captured over the weekend. The first was captured Friday in southern Newton County around Ben Hur, which is near the middle of nowhere. The other one was captured this morning at Coal Hill, which is near Clarksville, Arkansas. What's interesting is what they found when they caught the first one, or rather whom. The missing Mrs. Throneberry.

Authorities say they now believe Ann Throneberry was at the cabin when the trooper was shot, and she ran off with the two men.
Van Buren County Sheriff Scott Bradley says investigators suspect Ted Throneberry is no longer alive. The search continues today for him.

I guess that explains why Mr. Throneberry went missing 3 weeks before his wife, doesn't it.

Misused Words

This is incorrect.

A woman who claimed God ordered her to bash in the heads of her sons with a rock was acquitted yesterday of all charges after a jury determined she was legally insane during the killings.

She was not 'acquitted'. She was found not guilty by reason of insanity. The difference?

Acquitted people are free to go about their lives. (See, e.g., O.J. Simpson) Persons found legally insane go directly to a mental hospital until such time, if ever, they are determined to no longer be legally insane, a threat to themselves or others. (See, e.g., John Hinckley)

It's called a "dictionary". Use frequently when necessary.

Smooth Move-Not

Kerry's staff has a new addition--former Dukakis top aide John Sasso. Hmmm. Wonder what that's all about.

In 1998, Sasso was fired from the Dukakis campaign after it was learned he had orchestrated an attack on Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., by secretly distributing to the media a video showing that Biden had plagiarized liberally from the speeches of British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock.

A word of advice, Mr. Kerry. Don't get into the tank.

Falluja Atrocity

Some Iraqis just don't get it.

"The Americans should think before they act. If they enter Falluja and use force it will only be met with force and this will happen over and over," said Lt. Mohammad Tarik, a member of the U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces in Falluja.

"This is Falluja. Everyone is angry with the occupation and there are many tribes, which means there will be revenge. The Americans should just keep out."

Apparently some part of "You lost the war" got garbled in translation.

They can woof all they want, but the fact remains that y'all gotta sleep sometime. And we can be very patient.

As the Spanish say, revenge is a dish best eaten cold.

Help Wanted

Our buddy Rodge's computer is totally horked. Some of you technical types go help him out.

It's the right thing to do.

Let's Hear It For Our Troops

Contrary to what you may've heard, re-enlistment of our all-volunteer troop is not a problem.

Army divisions that fought the past 12 months in Iraq have met virtually every re-enlistment goal, a sign that the all-volunteer force remains strong under the stress of frequent deployments and hazardous duty.

In fact, most of the divisions exceeded their retention goals....in an all-volunteer army.

Stop & think about that for a minute.

Pretty amazing, isn't it?

Another Spanish Bomb

How's that appeasement thing working out for Spain? Not too well.

A bomb was found on a high-speed train track near the Spanish city of Toledo on Friday just weeks after 191 people were killed in suspected al Qaeda bombings of four packed Madrid commuter trains.

The explosives were connected by a cable to a detonator, he told a news conference.

Is anyone surprised?

Die Scum

The big bad comment spammers are back. Unfortunately for them, I happened to be sitting at my laptop when they first hit. The alleged IP is 65.75.136.40
if you'd like to ban it too.