I've been pondering the best way to do something, and I'd like some input from y'all who know more about cats than I. If we get this bigger house that we're looking at, we'd like to get another kitty. We'll have plenty of room, and the dogs would enjoy having one that would play with them. Our cat did pretty well with Jack-Jack while he was here, i.e., she didn't try to kill him like the other one we found, she mostly just ignored him. So we think she would adjust to having another cat in the house ok.
But.
We're also likely to be moving in the next couple of months, assuming the house deal goes through. Which will be a big adjustment for our present kitty....new house, she'll have to be indoor kitty, not indoor/outdoor kitty. (We're already making her stay indoors all the time now, so she'll be used to it by the time we move. We hope.)
What I'm wondering is whether it would be easier for her if we got the new kitty now, and let her get used to him before we move? Or should I wait until she gets used to the new house and then bring in the new kitty?
I'm leaning towards the first, because then they would both move together to the new place, and it would be new territory for them both.
Or would it matter which I do first?
I don't want to introduce a new kitty & a new house too closely together. I think that would be more than the old grouch could handle. She's going to be bad enough doing one at a time.
What do you guys think?
Sorry for my sudden absence.....things have been a bit hectic with one thing and another. Nothing particularly interesting, though I've also been dealing with the sudden appearance of a new medication side effect, the details of which I put in the extended entry for those of you who are interested. All two of you.
WildChild was here Friday, in route from my parents' back to his mom's. He and Sollie had their first ever wild game of Fetch, which delighted them both. "Ma! Ma! Look! Sollie bringed the ball back to me! Good dog Sollie!" Over and over and over. They were cracking me up.
But not as much as what he asked me later. He was coloring, and out of the blue asked "Ma, what's Sollie's favorite color?"
Hmmm. Do I try to explain to a 4 yr. old that his little buddy can't really see colors? Ummm, no, not today. So I told him "Gee, you know, I don't know. What color do you think is his favorite?"
"Red," he replied firmly. "Sollie likes red."
He's probably right. If Sollie could see colors, I'm sure he would like red best.
Pugs are just like that.
Since last Saturday, I've started getting peripheral edema, which had gotten increasingly worse. My face looked a lot like this. Without all the prickles of course. The up side was I had no wrinkles. The down side was it hurt to laugh or even smile because it felt like my face was going to explode from the pressure.
Annoying, but not nearly as bad as my knees & ankles, which became so swollen I could barely walk. Doing the disabled old lady shuffle I was....and spending a lot of time flat on my back with my legs elevated. Not so much fun. But my daughter mentioned it to one of my doctors, who sent word that I had to make a slight diet change:
NO SALT.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! NOOOOOO! Not the British diet!
But it's helping, as bad as I hate to admit it. I can actually see my ankle bones this morning, and my knees bend & everything. Dammit.
So no salt it is, at least for the immediate future.
*weeping*
And I still have half a box of vine-ripened tomatoes from my Dad's garden. They're taunting me I tell you.
The online sex offender registries were responsible for at least one alleged unregistered repeat offender getting busted here locally.
Bentonville police received the anonymous call Tuesday about Schuler. The caller identified him and stated his photograph was seen on the Internet and Schuler supposedly fled from Colorado, according to a news release from the Bentonville Police Department.
A follow-up investigation indicated Schuler was a convicted sex offender in Colorado and his records showed failure to register along with an unknown address, police said.
He's now been arrested & is awaiting a hearing on the charges.
I hope we see more of this as more & more people become aware of the registries and how to use them. The police do the best they can under the circumstances, but they can't arrest these people if they don't know where they are. The public can help by using the registries just like this.
It's a good thing.
Well color me surprised.
Outed CIA spy Valerie Plame last fall gave a campaign contribution to go toward an anti-Bush fund-raising concert starring Bruce Springsteen, it was revealed Tuesday night.
....
The $372 donation to the anti-Bush group America Coming Together, first reported by Time magazine's Web site, was made in Plame's married name of Valerie E. Wilson and covered two tickets.
The Federal Election Commission record lists her occupation as "retired" even though she's still a CIA staffer. Under employer it says: "N.A."
I'm sure they're just big fans of The Boss, right?
The Oklahoma county in which I worked had a policy (and it may be statewide I don't remember) that all calls to its Child Abuse Hotline were investigated by someone in the field.*** It's a good policy, because all too often in my experience, a call regarding a relatively minor sounding complaint will turn out to be just the tip of the iceberg. I don't know whether or not that's how this investigation got started (hotline calls are confidential by law), but I suspect it's likely.
Police say when they arrived at the mom and step-dad's house, they found their trailer had no running water or electricity, and just one bed. Investigators say there was more dog food in the house than food for the family. They say, they found just one can of soup in the cupboards.
The legal catchphrase for this is 'environmental neglect'.....in other words, the kid(s) aren't being taken care of as they should. Usually cases like these are lower priority, services are provided to the family and everyone works together to get things back up to par and keep them that way.
However, in this case, like too many others I've seen, that's not all investigators found once they were at the residence.
It's a case of child abuse so horrific; it's reduced a police department to tears. Investigators in Gore, Oklahoma rescued a four year old boy who--they say--is skin and bones. The little boy tells police--that's not all--saying he was punished by being beaten, handcuffed, and put in a closet. The boy says it's happened in two homes, two counties. His mom, step-dad, and his aunt have been arrested.
More details in the article. Go read them. I'll wait.
Now imagine, if you can, what would've happened to this little guy if no one had called the hotline.
I've posted about this story not to sicken you, though it certainly will. But to point out that if you think there's something just not quite right about a family situation, or you think there's some type of abuse going on....call your Child Abuse Hotline. While it may just be a family down on their luck, err on the side of caution. It could be much, much more.
Your call could be a lifesaver.
Unlike Arkansas, which has the asinine policy of requiring the hotline operators to pre-screen calls....only some of which are passed along for investigation. An extremely stupid and dangerous policy which will eventually bite Arkansas in the ass, mark my words.
Just imagine what would've happened to this little guy if investigators had never actually visited his home.
And just imagine what an earful I could give our governor & state legislators on the ways to overhaul our present child welfare system. If I ever get the opportunity, I'll be all over them like a chicken on a junebug.
There's a newsphoto of the local anti-war Elvis on this morning's front page.
Not sure how long it'll stay up, so check it out while you can.
He's apparently blowing peace bubbles.
Sheesh. What a goober.
I know I've nagged all of y'all about this before, but it's important.
Virtually all deaths from cervical cancer are preventable, yet the disease will kill almost 4,000 women in this country this year. Frustrated scientists know who most of them will be: black women in the South, Hispanics along the Texas-Mexico border, white women in Appalachia and the rural Northeast, and Vietnamese immigrants.
Get a yearly Pap test. It might save your life, or the life of your significant other. It saved mine. And my nagging has now saved the life of someone very dear to me (who shall remain nameless). But it was someone who hadn't been checked in a couple of years, even though I harped at her constantly. Like me, she didn't fit any of the common risk profiles for cervical cancer. So she kept putting it off.
Her outpatient surgery is scheduled for early next month. Prognosis: a full recovery is expected. If she'd waited another year, prolly not so good.
So just schedule the damn thing & get it over with.
Today.
Hey Craig! Wake up! (link via fark)
David's already live blogged it, complete with links.
Now that's dedication.
UPDATE: Thanks to the commenter who wants to 'virtually punch me in the face' I discovered AOL has a poll up about Hanoi Jane. At the moment, "She's a traitor" is leading with 52%, and in the second category, 73% "don't take her seriously at all".
ROTF LMAO There's hope for this country yet....even for AOL users on their MAC's in Los Angeles, CA.
Voting is still open, BTW.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Some people just have to prove there's no fool like an old fool.
Actress and activist Jane Fonda said she intends to take a cross-country bus tour to call for an end to U.S. military operations in Iraq.
Fonda said her antiwar tour in March will use a bus that runs on "vegetable oil." She will be joined by families of Iraq war veterans and her daughter.
Hey, maybe she can hook up with Elvis in Fayetteville.
I don't know about you, but I wouldn't piss in her mouth if her throat was on fire. And I wouldn't slap her, because shit splatters.
I rilly, rilly despise her, can you tell?
I told you this would happen.
Ashtrays have been disappearing in cars like fins on Cadillacs, and so could smoking while driving in New Jersey, under a measure introduced in the Legislature.
....
Those cigars, pipes and cigarettes would become no-nos for drivers. Offenders would be stung with a fine of up to $250, under the measure, whose sponsor said it's designed more to improve highway safety than protect health.
The legislation is said to be unlikely to pass....this time. But don't let that fool you into thinking there's no support for it. Check out the poll results on the linked page. Presently there's been 1697 votes in favorite of banning smoking in cars.
All for your own good, of course.
I have got to get out more. Just look what I've missed.
Hoping to grab the attention of passing cars, a man dressed as Elvis has been standing at the corner of College Avenue and Dickson Street on recent Sundays with a sign that says, "Elvis asks, who would Jesus bomb?"
Apparently, Elvis is appearing for 1 hr. each Sunday, Sunday, Sunday as part of an ongoing anti-war protest sponsored by the local Omni Center for Peace, Justice, and Ecology.
ROTF This I gotta see.
Mark Steyn has an excellent as always article about the new multiculturism....and its pending death. (link via Instapundit) It also contains some information about the missed opportunities to have stopped Atta, et al, that I'd either forgotten or hadn't read. So I'd thought it would be fun to look at some other possible responses which might've been more effective.
Atta was apparently applying for a substantial 'farm' loan to convert a plane into a crop duster. But he had a problem with the loan officer right off the bat.
The meeting got off to a rocky start when Atta refused to deal with Bryant because she was but a woman.
I've had that happen before, in a variety of settings. The correct response is to be polite but firm, and treat the customer just like everyone else....because that's your job. Besides, it really pisses off the true misogynists.
When it was explained to him that, alas, he wouldn't get the 650 grand in cash that day, Atta threatened to cut Bryant's throat.
Do you:
a) Press the silent alarm, and insist on filing charges for terroristic threatening and/or assault?
b) Educate the speaker about the advisability of bringing a knife to a gun fight?
c) Lean slightly forward, look the speaker directly in the eyes and say in a firm voice "You and what army?"
d) All of the above.
D is the better answer, though any of A-C are acceptable. Continuing the paperwork to give the speaker a loan is not.
He then pointed to a picture behind her desk showing an aerial view of downtown Washington - the White House, the Pentagon et al - and asked: "How would America like it if another country destroyed that city and some of the monuments in it?"
As Ms. Bryant said, here's an opportunity to help him make the "cultural leap" into our society. Which is the better response?
a) "About as well as you would like it if America turned Mecca into a sea of glass."
b) "About as well as you would like it if Tyson's turned Mecca into their latest hog breeding & processing facility."
c) "America wouldn't like it at all, and would in fact hunt down & kill everyone responsible if it takes until the end of time."
d) Give an impromptu lecture on what happened to the Japanese after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, ending with the quotation about how those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
While B is my personal favorite, D is probably the better response. Feel free to add your own in the comments.
Now I'm being mostly facetious here, but the point is respecting other cultures is all well & good until a culture is centered around destroying your own.
That's where you have to draw the line.
Some people are just pretty goddamn sorry.
Less than 24 hours after an Ohio soldier was buried, someone pulled up 20 American flags from his father-in-law's front yard and set fire to them under a car in the driveway, according to WLWT-TV in Cincinnati.
The family of Pfc. Timothy Hines and neighbors can't understand why someone would do that.
"If it wasn't random vandalism, what statement were they trying to make?" said Jim Wessels, Hines' father-in-law.
The car, belonging to Wessel's daughter, was burned beyond repair.
Whatever statement they were trying to make, they were obviously not proud enough of it to make it in broad daylight or in public view....but rather chose to sneak around like an egg-sucking dog.
Craven cowards.
It wasn't the 4th of July, but it was sure hot. We had a belated birthday party for my daughter yesterday, which tradition dictates is a cookout at my sister's. Smoked brisket, BBQ ribs, smoked chicken, this vegetable medley my sister makes on the grill, my coleslaw, cake and of course....homemade ice cream. And gallons of iced tea.
It's still talking to me this morning. hehe But man was it good!
My daughter's best friend since kindergarten brought her little boy (about 2 yrs old) and his little wading pool, so we spent most of the time out on their covered deck, watching him & WildChild play in the water. They had a great time, splashing and running wild. I threatened to join them several times, just to cool off. But there was a nice breeze, so with the deck's ceiling fan on high, it really wasn't too bad out there even though the thermometer read around 97 degrees.
We were even treated to an impromtu concert by the boys, one on a xylophone and the other banging a toy....and both singing at the top of their lungs. Not quite sure what the song was, I suspect it was an original composition. It was funny, whatever it was.
WildChild has a funny quirk about singing. He loves to sing, but he HATES it when other people sing. Always has, especially the "Happy Birthday" song. When he was a baby, he would just cry & cry every time we would sing "Happy Birthday" to anyone. Now that he's bigger, he just grumbles, rolls his eyes and claps his hands over his ears....like he did yesterday.
At least he's doing better than the last couple of years, when he would do all that plus yell at the top of his lungs:
'STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT!"
through the entire song.
That was a little too disruptive.
Unlike the latest lame London attempt, yesterday's bombing of a resort area in Egypt was much more deadly.
As many as seven blasts ripped through the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik in the early hours of Saturday morning, killing at least 62 people and injuring 200 more, security officials said.
At least four car bombs were used to carry out the attacks in what was the deadliest assault in Egypt in nearly a decade.
The area hit, Sharm, is a major tourist destination as well as a meeting place for world leaders....such as Sharon & Abbas' cease-fire meeting last February.
Kill some innocent infidels, hurt Egypt's tourist trade and the opportunity, however slight, to take out major political figures....certainly fits today's terrorist criteria for target selection.
In the light of such recent events, I was particularly struck by a passage from a Churchill autobiography I'm currently reading:
War, which used to be cruel and magnificent, has become cruel and squalid......Instead of a small number of well-trained professionals championing their country's cause with ancient weapons and a beautiful intricacy of archaic manoeuvre, sustained at every moment by the applause of their nations, we now have entire populations, including even women and children, pitted against one another in brutish mutual extermination, and only a set of blear-eyed clerks left to add up the butcher's bill.
He was, of course, lamenting the change from the use of calvary to the use of machinery to fight wars. We are seeing a similar change today, I think. Our war is not one of nations fighting nations. It's fought by groups of terrorists whose only goal is to destroy nations and people who don't think like them.
And like those in WWI, we are going to have to adapt our tactics accordingly.
How hot is it? 100 degrees, according to the front porch thermometer. 99 degrees officially in Fayetteville, with a heat index of 104.
No wonder WildChild decided not to play outside.
Thank goodness.
Sky News is reporting London police have shot an apparent suicide bomber near an Underground Station.
The BBC has a similar report.
Mr Whitby, told BBC News: "I saw an Asian guy run onto the train hotly pursued by three plain-clothes police officers.
"One of them was carrying a black handgun - it looked like an automatic - they pushed him to the floor, bundled on top of him and unloaded five shots into him."
No other details available yet.
Via Instapundit, here's a nice compilation of links to the text & video of John Howard's response to a dumb reporter's question yesterday.
And indeed, all the evidence, as distinct from the suppositions, suggests to me that this is about hatred of a way of life, this is about the perverted use of principles of the great world religion that, at its root, preaches peace and cooperation. And I think we lose sight of the challenge we have if we allow ourselves to see these attacks in the context of particular circumstances rather than the abuse through a perverted ideology of people and their murder.
Go read and watch the rest.
Like I've said before, the war isn't about what we've done or not done. It's about who we are........and their belief that infidels must die. Iraq is just a convenient excuse, just like all the other ones they've used to justify their actions.
It's that simple.
You knew this was coming.
Democrats said yesterday they will demand that the Bush administration hand over internal legal memorandums written by Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. while he was a government lawyer -- something the White House has refused to do in the past.
Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said he broached the topic during a meeting yesterday with Judge Roberts, who replied that any decision about his writings as deputy solicitor general would be made by the White House.
The President is unlikely to waive the attorney/client privilege.
And he shouldn't.
From an ethical standpoint, there's no overriding concern to breach the privilege. From a practical standpoint, the information gained is hardly helpful in determining Judge Roberts ideology.
What one advises one's client(s) has little or no relationship to the way one would rule on the bench.
Like duh.
As an attorney, you are advocating your client's position. As a judge, you are examining both sides' evidence and applying applicable law. Two entirely different things.
It's as if you were applying for a top programmer's position, and the hiring committee demanded to see the e-mails you'd written to your future spouse while you were in college. Sure, you may've written about a particularly difficult programming problem.....but it sure as heck isn't going to indicate what kind of programmer you've become.
But they know all that. They just want to kick up a fuss about something to stall the nomination....and placate the more left-wing of their party.
That's getting very tiresome.
The DOJ has started its online National Sex Offender Registry. So far, 22 states are participating, but it plans to have every state included by the end of the year. It will incorporate each individual state's registry into a single, searchable database.
You can find the National Registry here.
State registries are handy tools to research neighborhoods in which you're considering moving, or to check out individuals who may be around your children. Though I would never rely on them entirely. States often have a backlog of offenders waiting to be evaluated for placement on the registry, and the location information on those listed isn't always updated as frequently as it should be. And you have to consider that these are just the offenders who've been convicted.
But it's a good place to start.
While any registry is a legitimate research tool, the information should NEVER be used to harass an individual listed. Not only is that illegal under federal and/or state law, it's just wrong.
UPDATE: Four explosions confirmed, only 1 injury reported. Still lots of confusion, unconfirmed reports of a unexploded bomb that's on a bus.
One thing's for sure, from what I'm watching on Fox, the British police are all over the affected areas like white on rice.
The BBC is reporting 'incidents' & evacuations at 3 London Underground stations.
Reuters is reporting a nail bomb explosion and possibly one shooting.
AP is reporting smoke & possibly one minor explosion:
McCracken said he smelled smoke at the Warren Street station, and people were panicking and coming into his carriage. He said he spoke to an Italian man who was comforting a woman after the evacuation.
"He said that a man was carrying a rucksack and the rucksack suddenly exploded. It was a minor explosion but enough to blow open the rucksack," McCracken said.
"The man then made an exclamation as if something had gone wrong. At that point everyone rushed from the carriage."
Not entirely clear at this point what, if anything has happened.
Now there's an enthusiastic Razorback supporter.
Maybe even a little obsessive.
The ABC just voted 3-2 in favor of granting a liquor license to the proposed Sam's Club here in Fayetteville.
Be a few liquor store owners crying in their receipts tonight, eh?
But it's good news for the rest of Fayetteville.
UPDATE: Here's a short video clip, via some Farker.
The President is a much better man than I. If I had seen that, I would've just completely cracked up laughing.
What a cute little boy!
(Link via The Corner)
I'd give a quarter to see the video replay of those moves.
A retired grocery clerk is in line to become the next Earl of Essex.
Capell, a 52-year-old, born-and-bred Californian, was largely unimpressed by the news that he might become a nobleman.
"I'm a pretty laid-back guy," he said. "I've known since way back in 1966, as a teenager, when my dad got a call. It's always been on the back burner, sure, but I never really thought about it."
As the Right Honorable Lord William Capell, Capell would be entitled to put his name forward as a candidate, should one of the 95 hereditary members of the House of Lords die. He says Queen Elizabeth II (search) would formally address him as "Our right trusty and entirely beloved cousin."
These kinds of stories always tickle me. They're interesting too, to see how differently the American relatives have lived from their British cousins.
Who knows? If the Welsh family legends are true, it might even happen to me someday.....except my title would more likely be something like the Duchess of a Whole Lotta Nothing.
I'd be about as impressed by that as this gentleman is by his potential title, I daresay.
I'm gonna hate this.
As a step to save energy, Congress appears poised to extend U.S. daylight-saving time two months, starting it earlier, on the first Sunday in March, and ending it later, on the last Sunday of November.
If passed & signed by the President, it goes into effect immediately.
Damn you! As if my sleep cycle weren't screwed up enough already.
We hateses Daylight Savings Time, we does.
Lt. Gov. Win Rockefeller has announced he is withdrawing from the race for Governor due to serious health problems.
The state official said his illness is being treated aggressively and that he will have a bone marrow transplant.
Rockefeller has been campaigning and raising money in the hope of following in his father's footsteps as governor of Arkansas. He said that his blood condition could turn into leukemia and that the illness would end his plans for 2006.
While it is unlikely I would've supported him for governor, I'm sorry to hear of his illness and would like to extend my best wishes for a successful and speedy recovery.
I'm sure there's lots of digging going on right now, but so far, no one has come up with much against Judge Roberts. The most the Democrats have said is that he has "suitable legal credentials" (Reid) or he's "in the ballpark" (Leiberman), and that they want to know more about him. Look for intensive grilling during the confirmation hearings, but I suspect he'll be confirmed.
Liberal groups such as NOW and other pro-choice organizations, on the other hand, are raising a brief he wrote as assistant SG.
In particular, Mr. Neas and other pro-choice advocates are suspicious that Judge Roberts doesn't believe that the Constitution guarantees the right to an abortion, as was determined in the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision.
"We continue to believe that Roe was wrongly decided and should be overruled," he argued in a brief. He also said that abortion has "no support in the text, structure or history of the Constitution."
First of all, a lawyer has an ethical obligation to argue his client's position, regardless of his personal opinions. Period. Therefore, it is foolish to assume his arguments represent his personal beliefs. They may, or may not.
Second, he's correct. From a strictly legal standpoint, Roe v. Wade is bad law badly written. There may be a constitutional basis for abortion, but you'll not find it in Roe. What you will find is a bare majority of justices who believed personally that women should be able to get abortions on demand. And they clumsily cobbled together the necessary penumbras and emanations to support their desired conclusions.
It's also about the most blatant example of legislating from the bench you'll find.
So if that's the worst they can argue against Roberts, they ain't got much.
If you ever have to take this, never, NEVER never have spaghetti with meat sauce and a couple of slices of garlic bread for dinner the night after you've taken your weekly dose. Your tummy will NOT like that. Trust me.
I have never had acid reflux so bad in my entire life. Ugh! No more sleep for me tonight/this morning, I think.
Oh well. At least I got to see Ms. Bitchkitty climb up on the back of a chair & try to open the doorknob with her front paws. She got really pissed when I laughed & told her "Turn all you want. I threw the deadbolt."
She finally forgave me & condescended to sleep in my lap.
A purring cat in one's lap make even the worst things better....except one's cat allergy that is.
UPDATE: President Bush has made it official. His nominee is John C. Roberts. From what I've been reading around about him, he sounds like a well-respected, experienced attorney & jurist.
Fox (tv) is reporting John Roberts is Bush's pick for Supreme Court.
The AP is carrying the same report.
My son & future Daughter-in-law are expecting....baby is due in early March.
Yay! A new grandbaby to spoil rotten!
Actually, there's kind of a weird story about it all.
You knew there would be, didn't you?
A few weeks ago, I was putting WildChild to bed. He said "Ma, I want you & Pa to get me a new brother to play with. His name can be [WildChild], just like me." Now he'd been a little hellion that day, so I just sighed and said "I don't want another WildChild. I think one is enough."
"No, Ma. I want a new brother to play with."
I giggled. "Well I don't think Pa & I can get you one."
"How come?" he asked. I didn't even want to start to explain that one to a 4 yr. old, so I said "Well, maybe if Daddy & his girlfriend get married, they can get you a new brother or sister."
His eyes got big & he got all excited. "They CAN?!?!?! REALLY!!!!"
"Yep," I said. "Maybe so."
"WOW! COOL! They can get me a new brother AND a new sister! YAY!"
Me: "Uhhh....I don't know about both. Maybe a brother OR a sister at first."
"No. I want both. I want a new brother. His name can be Sollie. AND a new sister. Her name can be Violet."
I cracked up. He had names picked out & everything.
So. After I got him to sleep, I emailed my son & told him the story....cause I just thought that was hilarious. Then I get an email from my son the next afternoon. "Uhh, Mom, actually that's kinda weird because we think we may be pregnant."
*Twilight Zone theme*
I haven't told WildChild yet, because I was waiting for the doctor's confirmation that everything was ok. But I'm planning to tell him this weekend. He will be so excited.
I'm just glad he didn't wish for a pony or worse, his new favorite animal, a penguin.
I don't think even his Daddy could've delivered on that one.
Dark chocolate.....mmmmmm.
Researchers looked at 10 men and 10 women with hypertension and high blood pressure who did not have any other health issues. Half the group ate 3.5 ounces of dark chocolate every day for 15 days. The other half ate the same amount of white chocolate, which has no flavonoids. Then, the two groups switched chocolates for another 15 days.
....
Systolic blood pressure dropped 12 points and diastolic fell 9. The group eating white chocolate had no change in blood pressure at all. The results are published in Monday's issue of Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association.
So there you go. Eat all you want.
I do.
Everyone's talking about the fatal stabbing in Bentonville Saturday night....at a baby shower of all places. Scary stuff.
Even scarier is that we'd considered buying a house a couple of blocks away from where this happened, but decided for several reasons against it.....one of which was that it was a little too close to what we'd heard was a pretty unsafe neighborhood.
Really glad we did now.
Be still my heart. Al's new tv channel will start broadcasting Aug. 1.
The 2000 Democratic candidate for president was asked if he was concerned the 24-hour news and information channel will be perceived as having a political slant. Gore said the new network is not intended to be partisan in any way and will speak for itself.
I'm sure it'll be simply fascinating.
They were making fun of this over at Fark.com yesterday, but I didn't think it was very funny.
Vandalism couldn't put a stop to a weekend swim meet in Bentonville.
The two-day meet was scheduled to start Saturday morning at Memorial Park. But when event organizers arrived at the pool, they found it filled with manure.
Organizers cleaned the pool and reorganized the meet so that all 300 swimmers could compete on Sunday. In addition, officials hired security guards to watch the pool.
The swimmers were all local kids, and it was their last chance to qualify for some big upcoming meet. Real funny, right?
Not really.
Sssshhh! Don't tell anyone, but we may've found a house in Bentonville. I don't want to jinx the deal, so let's just leave it at that. Keep your fingers crossed though.
I've even more exciting news that I've been bursting to tell, but I'm awaiting official confirmation.....which I should get, one way or another, sometime this week. Here's a hint:
I should really remember to be careful what I wish for.
*grins*
I'll stop beating this dead horse after this post, but here are a couple of sources which allege that Plame's cover was blown in the mid 1990's. See here and here.
The more I read about this, the more I'm convinced she's like Norm from Cheers....you know, she walks into a room & everyone yells "Plame!"
Not covert. Not protected by law. Not even very interesting at this point.
The end.
Via Fark, an interesting look at Arkansas' history of the war against alcohol. Lots of interesting stuff there, especially in light of today's local fuss about the Sam's Club selling liquor.
Interesting fact: The governor responsible for successfully restoring alcohol sales in Arkansas after the repeal of Prohibition was Gov. Futrell.....for whom the local street Futrell Drive is named.
There's many old photos there too, so go give it a look. There's even a recipe & diagram of how to make moonshine.
Not that I'd recommend doing that, of course. Besides being illegal, that shit'll kill you if you don't know what you're doing.
But it's fun to read about.
Couple of things kinda tickled my funny bone over the weekend. First, there was this:
But the pendulum has swung. The 2005 Honda Accord hybrid gets about the same miles per gallon as the basic four-cylinder model, according to a review by Consumer Reports, a car-buyer's guide, and it saves only about two miles a gallon compared with the V-6 model on which it is based. Thanks to the hybrid technology, though, it accelerates better.
So hybrid car drivers aren't really saving gas or preventing pollutions, but hey! They've got acceleration!
Next, there's this:
Supporters of ethanol and other biofuels contend they burn cleaner than fossil fuels, reduce U.S. dependence on oil and give farmers another market to sell their produce.
But researchers at Cornell University (search) and the University of California-Berkeley say it takes 29 percent more fossil energy to turn corn into ethanol than the amount of fuel the process produces. For switch grass, a warm weather perennial grass found in the Great Plains and eastern North America United States, it takes 45 percent more energy and for wood, 57 percent.
It takes 27 percent more energy to turn soybeans into biodiesel fuel and more than double the energy produced is needed to do the same to sunflower plants, the study found.
Hehe. That cracks me up.
Not that I'm against alternative fuels, mind you. I'd love to see us less dependent on fossil fuel. But most, if not all, of the 'environmentally correct' solutions totally ignore that little thing call the Three Laws of Thermodynamics.
Those darned laws of physics will get you every time.
Today's NYTimes has an interesting article on the growing use of linking data to interactive map services like Google Earth. These are not only useful, but fun to just play around with. (Though I wish they'd get some higher resolution photos of our area. Hint, hint.)
The city of Bentonville's website has something similar....an interactive GIS city map that has tons of valuable information. I've been using it a lot lately to research homes for sale that we're considering. Not only does it have current information like zoning, sewer & water line locations, lot values and such, but it will also display city planning information and other very useful stuff.
For example, I'd found a house in our price range, on a large lot in an area we'd expect to increase in value due to future city plans. However when I added the FEMA flooding information filter, I discovered that there were substantial issues with most of the lot....which would've greatly increased its homeowner's insurance rates, among other things. Saved us some time & money that did.
There's nothing there that isn't publically available information. But it would've taken me days if not weeks to track it all down. With this, it's all just a mouse click away.
Pretty sweet.
Once when my daughter was younger, she & I were driving somewhere. And it started to rain, even though the sun was shining brightly. She was fascinated and was asking all kinds of questions. I explained, then remarked "You know what the old-timers say. If it's raining when the sun is shining, the devil is beating his wife."
"Oh Mom," she scoffed. "Who would marry the Devil?"
Oh honey, you'd be surprised.
Not that he wouldn't be a cool guy to hang out with and all. But marry & have to live with all his antics?
Ummm. No.
Craig's got a new photo posted of his little one. She's so adorable. Don't you just want to tickle her chin and make silly baby noises at her?
*sigh* We've put our order in for a new grandbaby to spoil rotten.
I just hope all 4 kids don't decide to fill it at the same time.
I think it's pretty clear now to anyone with half a brain that Rove isn't the Plame leaker.
Democrats, however, said that, even if Mr. Rove wasn't the leaker, someone still divulged Mrs. Plame's identity and possibly violated the law. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and other party leaders asked House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert on Friday to let Congress hold hearings into the controversy, regardless of the criminal probe now under way.
Good question. If not Rove, then who?
You know who I think it is?
Joe Wilson, Mr. 15-Minutes-Of-Fame-Aren't-Nearly-Enough.
I think he did it deliberately to bolster his bogus Niger report, and to cast doubt upon the President's claims that Saddam tried to buy yellowcake there. I also think the latter is the entire reason his wife got him sent to Niger in the first place....to get a 'report' disproving those claims.
In other words, it's been a setup by the Wilsons from Jump Street.
My opinion, for what it's worth, based on the information available at the moment.
What do you guys think?
I've promised my daughter that I will help her learn to shoot a pistol & get her concealed carry permit. (And get mine too while I'm at it) Should be a fun mother/daughter project, I haven't been shooting in forty forevers. And since she'll be needing to get her own pistol, I've been pondering what to recommend.
It'll need to be small, since she's built like a girl unlike me. So I figure either .357 or .40 would do nicely. Any smaller and she may as well have a handful of rocks. Any bigger and she would be afraid to shoot it. (She was raised around guns, but never had much interest in them.) If she ever needs to use it, it will probably be at fairly close range. And it'll need to be simple to use, because if she ever needs to use it, she'll be too scared to remember how to unlock a manual safety or anything like that. In other words, it'll need to be point & shoot....yet safe to carry.
So what do you guys think? I was thinking maybe something like this might work....though cost is also a consideration since she stays pretty strapped for cash most of the time.
Suggestions??
Unlike Kelo, this is probably a proper use of eminent domain.
Residents of the Saddlebrook subdivision off Northwest Third Street complained about sight distance problems. That safety issue pushed the widening project to the forefront. The road was slated to be widened anyway, Churchwell said, so the city just moved the project to the front of the line.
Now Northwest Third Street is being widened to three lanes for a length of approximately 1,000 feet, with a sidewalk on the north side. With all the school bus traffic and development, the street needs to be widened, Churchwell said.
One affected property owner is refusing to sell.
Instead of negotiating with the powers that be for progress, one local property owner has proven difficult to work with, erecting a huge sign to show his disapproval.
A 4-foot by 8-foot sign at 1804 N. W. Third St. states: "EMINENT DOMAIN ILLEGAL/IMMORAL. YOU’RE NEXT." The message is in large red and black block letters.
Property owner Ed Garrett has refused to negotiate with city officials on right of way for the expansion of Northwest Third Street.
Not that I don't sympathize, I wouldn't be too happy either in his position. But I think he's fighting a losing battle. The city has offered him $19,910 for the strip of land they need....which works out to about $96,560 per acre. Sounds pretty reasonable from what I know of land value in that area.
And this is precisely the situation for which eminent domain was designed. Street improvements benefit the public at large. And local governments should have the power to step in and force a recalcitrant property owner to sell, for a fair price, in these types of situations.
All of which illustrates one of the concerns I have about the backlash over Kelo. While restraining a government's power to use eminent domain improperly, legislators should be careful not to overly restrict the power to use it properly. It is, after all, sometimes a necessary evil.
Moderation in all things is usually the best approach.
BloodSpite was correct. There is a builder looking to build high-rise condos on the Beaver Lake. Seven 20-25 story condos in the Coose Hollow area, with a price range of $$100,000 to $1 million.
I suppose that kind of development is inevitable, land is getting scarce around the lake area. But I hate to see it happen. One of the best things about this area is that we have most of the conveniences of a big city without most of the headaches. (Though traffic is an increasing problem)
But then invariably everyone starts coming here because of that....which means explosive population growth. The end result will be just another big city.
I plan to enjoy it while it lasts, which I hope it will until we get ready to retire. Then we're going so far back into the hills I'll have to post by carrier pigeon.
Or at least by satellite link.
The only kind of overcrowding you have to worry about there is having too many coonhounds to fit under the porch.
Seems our water & wastewater director got a little tipsy down on Dickson Street early Friday morning.
Fayetteville police arrested Bob Davis, 52, at 12:46 a.m. on the charge after he was found lying face up on a Dickson Street sidewalk near George's Majestic Lounge, according to a preliminary police report.
Police said in the report that they asked Davis for 15 minutes to provide the name of a friend to pick him up. He allegedly wanted to walk home to his nearby apartment in the Three Sisters complex but pointed in the wrong direction, the report says.
Davis became belligerent, confrontational and used profane language, the report says. Police arrested Davis and took him to the Washington County Detention Center.
He has since bonded out, and resigned his position with the city.
Some mighty expensive drinks, eh Bob? And they'll just keep on costing you.
I read with great relief the appellate court ruling in the case of Osama's driver.
Geneva Conventions protections for prisoners of war do not apply to members of the al Qaeda terrorist network, a federal appeals court panel ruled yesterday, giving the Bush administration the green light for a military trial of Osama bin Laden's personal chauffeur.
In a major victory for President Bush, the three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said a joint resolution passed by Congress in the wake of the September 11 attacks authorized the president to use military commissions to try enemy combatants, including Yemeni national Salim Ahmed Hamdan.
I think it's a correct ruling, but you never know what an appellate court will do these days.
So, since the Geneva Convention doesn't apply to al Qaeda & its members, doesn't that mean that we can cut 'em if they stand and shoot 'em if they run? Or whatever else we wanted?
Assuming we wanted to, I mean.
Well, phooey. At least I got two good nights' sleep before the new sleeping medication didn't work.
12:13 a.m. is a new record.
This rilly blows.
I'm really glad it finally rained, but I could've done without the hail.....even if it wasn't all that big!
Here's a child welfare case I'd do pro bono, representing the child of course.
A police affidavit says Melissa Tanner had a blood alcohol content of .29 percent when she gave birth June 30. Police said the baby girl was born with a blood alcohol level of .21 percent.
Hospital staff had to use an oxygen bag to help the baby start breathing and gave her medication to counteract any narcotics.
Police said Tanner told them she and another person had just polished off a case of beer, and that she regularly drank during pregnancy. A sheriff's investigator said the baby has fetal alcohol syndrome.
The mother has been charged with child neglect. How about a petition for immediate termination of parental rights based on heinous & shocking child abuse? I don't think that'd be much of a problem for any jury to find, with a newborn having a BAC of .21.
Too bad the court can't order involuntary sterilization.
Thanks to Jim mentioning that he hadn't seen the Vanity Fair spread on Wilson & Plame, I did a little searching and voila!
Click on the 'enlarge photo' link & look closely at the text in the upper left.
"Former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson and his wife, CIA operative Valerie Plame, are at the center of the controversy...... [emphasis added]
*ahem*
Ummmm.....yeah. How could you not know who was behind those Ray-Bans, Val?
So what exactly is this fuss all about anyway?
Via Michele
"Vorpal blade" indeed, my beamish boy.
I love "Jabberwocky".
I saw this bumpersticker on a hippy car in downtown Fayetteville the other day:
"You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war" -- Albert Einstein
Rilly? I've always thought this was a better plan:
"To secure peace is to prepare for war" von Clausewitz
I mean seriously. Who do you think knows more about war and how to prevent it? Some egghead physics professor or a Prussian general and military strategist?
Me, I'll go with Prussian everytime. But then I'm a pretty hard-core pragmatist, with few illusions about the reality of how the world works. Hippy types rarely let reality intrude into their fantasy world.
*sigh*
We gotta get out of this place.
More pieces of the puzzle of 'who leaked what to whom' are getting revealed. Now an anonymous source has supposedly told the AP about Rove's grand jury testimony.
Rove testified that Novak originally called him the Tuesday before Plame's identity was revealed in July 2003 to discuss another story. The conversation eventually turned to former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who was strongly criticizing the Bush administration's Iraq war policy and the intelligence it used to justify the war, the source said.
The person said Rove testified that Novak told him he had learned and planned to report in a weekend column that Wilson's wife, Plame, had worked for the CIA, and the circumstances on how her husband traveled to Africa to check bogus claims of alleged nuclear material sales to Iraq.
Additionally, Rove allegedly testified he already knew about her from another reporter, but could not remember which one told him.
Plausible enough, but the truth? Who knows at this point? There is apparently an e-mail between Cooper & Rove that seems to corroborate Rove's testimony.
Even if this is not true and Rove did reveal Plame's identity, I've seen little evidence of any crime.
But at the same time, Wilson acknowledged his wife was no longer in an undercover job at the time Novak's column first identified her. "My wife was not a clandestine officer the day that Bob Novak blew her identity," he said.
Federal law prohobits goverment officials from divulging the identity of an undercover intelligence officer. But in order to bring charges, prosecutors must prove the official knew the officer was covert and nonetheless outed his or her identity.
I mean jeez. She'd been at a desk job in DC for several years. And how the hell do you 'out' someone who's appeared in a big photo spread in Vanity Fair with her husband and identified by name?
Don't get me wrong. If Rove broke the law, he should be prosecuted just like anyone else. I just haven't seen any evidence yet of anything except the seamier side of politics....and both sides are equally guilty in that regard.
Time will tell whether anything illegal happened.
Chief Justice Rehnquist said yesterday he's not retiring.
"I want to put to rest the speculation and unfounded rumors of my imminent retirement," Rehnquist, 80, who suffers from thyroid cancer, said in a statement issued by his family.
"I am not about to announce my retirement. I will continue to perform my duties as chief justice as long as my health permits," he added.
That's the issue, though, isn't it? Has his health deteriorated to the point that he can no longer function effectively as chief justice? I mean, he's just gotten out of the hospital again, this time for a 'fever'.
OTOH, perhaps the President has asked him to wait until O'Connor's replacement has been confirmed. Especially since everyone has whipped themselves into such a frenzy over that.....on all sides of the political spectrum. No one will have the energy or political capital left to put up much of a fuss if a second appointment follows quickly on the heels of the first.
Might be pretty good 'strategery' after all.
--This is not Steve. (link via Fark)
--Andy has a new job. Cheers, dude!
--Matt has some deep thoughts on blogging.
--Keith is still AWOL, playing that dumb interesting game no doubt. Yeah, I just can't wait until Mike gets an XBox this weekend. Really. Honest. I almost mean that.
--The most exciting thing I've done all day is take the toaster oven apart to see why it suddenly stopped working. Answer: it blowed up real good, and we'll have to get a new one.
And sleep, glorious sleep. Thanks to one of the new meds, I slept almost 8 hrs. last night. And took a 2 hr. nap this afternoon. A few more days of that, and I should be not nearly so confused and forgetful.
That will be nice.
Blackavar's Magic Eight Ball Judge.
Hehe.
Sodas are the next target of the Food Police.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest yesterday filed a petition with the federal agency, which regulates U.S. food and drug sales.
The petition said "health messages" should be posted on all drinks containing more than 1.1 grams per ounce of high-fructose corn syrup or other caloric sweeteners, which it called "liquid candy."
Warnings also should be posted on soft drinks that have more than 10 milligrams of caffeine per 12-ounce serving, the request said.
Warnings included "drinking too much non-diet soda may contribute to weight gain" and "a 12-ounce serving of this drink contains 40 milligrams of caffeine, a mildly addictive stimulant drug. Not appropriate for children".
Good grief, how ridiculous. If you're too damn dumb to know that drinking too much soda isn't good for you, I doubt you'd get much from a warning label. And since all indications are that soda consumption is dropping already, why go to the expense of adding warning labels?
Besides the fact that there's certain people who really like to tell other people what to do.
BTW, for those who are buzzing about our Gov. Huckabee as a potential presidential candidate, you might want to remember he generally supports this kind of thing. For example, he's been behind the push in Arkansas to remove or severely limit access to 'junk food' in our schools....part of his 'No Child With a Big Behind' program.
If he'd spent as much time trying to reform our child welfare services programs as he's wasted on his crusade against junk food, the children in our state would be in much better shape.
But I guess the latter gets better headlines.
I've been back to the doctor today. We're upping my steroid dosage for the immediate future, so sorry. Forecast calls for 50% chance of moderate crankiness, with occasional squall lines of "I hate everyone else in the world besides Mike".
And since I'm going to be on the steroids for a while, I have to take other medications to combat the side effects PLUS something to treat nerve pain. So now I need an extra purse just to carry my meds around. I may as well just put a blue rinse on my hair & move to freaking Palm Beach. Let's see....[nasal whine] "What, you can't pick up the phone to call your mother? This is what I get after 25 hours of labor? You don't call, you don't write. Are you getting enough to eat? You look too thin." [/nasal whine] Yep, I think I can do that. Hehe.
The good news is that I should start feeling much better in a couple of days. And after a couple of weeks, I'll start experimenting to find the lowest effective dosage of the steroids....which will hopefully be low enough to avoid the nastier side effects.
Keep your fingers crossed.
Usually I think annexation issues are about as exciting as watching paint dry, but there's a situation in neighboring Benton County that's just gotten interesting. As of today, 3 different towns have voted to annex all or part of the same 931 acres. The problem?
The competing votes have set in motion an unprecedented three-way tiebreaker. State law requires voters in the annexed area to determine which city to join through a runoff election. However, the law gives instructions only on how to proceed in a runoff between two cities.
The Benton County Election Commission will meet today to discuss how to structure a series of future elections, but leaders of Bentonville and Centerton suggested that the final decision about the annexation will be made outside the polling place.
Now I imagine the solution will be to have a 3 way election, and if none of the towns wins a 50+% majority, hold a runoff election between the top two....but that's going to have to be court-ordered since the statute makes no provisions for this situation. And if it is court-ordered, I'm sure the losers will appeal the decision. So it's not likely there'll be a resolution soon.
It's always fun for us lawyer types to watch new law being made....though in this case, the dispute could've been prevented by a little better thinking ahead by those who wrote the statute.
"Nah, that could never happen" is not a good mindset when writing laws. If you can imagine it, someone will try to do it....plus things you'd never dream of.
Every time.
Think the root cause of terrorism isn't religion? You're wrong.
The Muslim extremist on trial in the slaying of filmmaker Theo van Gogh admitted his guilt in court yesterday, declaring he acted out of religious conviction and would do it again if given the chance.
Mohammed Bouyeri also turned to Mr. van Gogh's mother, Anneke, in court and told her: "I don't feel your pain.
"I can't feel for you because I think you're a nonbeliever," he said.
Not to mention a woman as well.
As Cal Thomas argues in today's Washington Times, the root cause of Islamist terrorism isn't the war in Iraq, Israel or poverty. It's a deep belief in a "false theology and a god who requires them to kill "infidels.""
The rest are merely excuses to disguise the terrorists' true intent. If you don't understand that, you are making a foolish mistake.
And a extremely fatal one.
I picked up my daughter for lunch yesterday, and got a chance to check up on Jack-Jack, the rescued kitty. He's doing mighty fine, more than doubled in size and happy as can be in his new home. When I came inside, a grey streak ran across the living room and was spazzing out behind the vertical blinds, peeping out at me. I meowed at him*** and he froze, eyes big. I meowed again and he was like Hey! I know that voice! It's my old mommy! He ran across to me as fast as he could and cried to be picked up. I swear the cat was grinning from ear to ear.
I picked him up & he was estactic. Kitty kisses all over my face, purring to beat the band, and just generally loving on me. He was so glad to see me. Then he bit me on the nose and started attacking my hands. lol
After playing with him a while, I can see why she named him Jack-Jack. He's such a playful little spaz. And he and my daughter's other cat are big buddies now. He's a lucky little guy.
I'll try to remember to take my camera next time. He's quite a cutie....though I don't know if I can catch him still enough to get any photos.
I think he has ADHD.
That's right, I speak cat. I called him using the same call a mother cat makes to her kittens. A regular Dr. Doolittle I am.
Good news, Jim! Moorestown, NJ has been named as the #1 place to live by Money Magazine.
State by state results are here. Frankly I think it's a gyp. The only Arkansas city considered was Little Rock....and who the hell would want to live there?
We coulda been a contendah....we coulda been somebody.
Ummm....yeah. Thanks Craig! I deserve it, I suppose.
Today's meme is a mad lib variant, with the next 5 taggees listed in the meme. Since this one is a bit tough, you don't have to do it if you don't wanna. But Craig has thoughtfully provided a fill-in-the-blank form to make it easier.
So......*deep breath*....here goes nuttin.
"Have you ever had one of those days? You know where you just want to hit a car? Sometimes, you just want to grab your dog and just run? I had one of those day some time ago. See, I was just talking to Mike on the towel when I got a knock on the door. It turned out to be a traffic cone. I really wasn't in the mood to be bothered. I asked them what they wanted, when they said, "What is up with that?". I looked at them and said, "I\'m going to get you my pretty....and your little dog too.". Well, you should have seen the look on their face! They got really lifted and tried to grab me by my foot. The Kid wasn't havin' that, though! I grabbed their head, then I proceeded to put my cow in their yoga! While I was doing that, Joanie showed up and asked was everything ok. I said that I was trying to handle this. Tony asked could they join in and I said, "heck yeah!" Soon, they pulled out a meat cleaver and began to bust the bad guy over the head! Then, Matt, Jennifer and BloodSpite showed up and they began to slash the guy! After twenty minutes of that, we got bored with the whole thing and had a nice, tall glass of lake. You know, when you have bad days, it's good to know that you have friends who stick by you."
Looks like local soldier-turned-musician Luke Stricklin is starting to get some attention from the blogosphere. Here's what Greyhawk of the MudvilleGazette has to say about his song, "American by God's Amazing Grace":
This is the song of the year. No, it's better than that. It's one for the ages. I tear up when I hear this one. Maybe it's just because I was there, and this captures how I feel about the experience.
High praise indeed.
You can listen to a clip here, as well as a couple of other clips from the newly released album, which is also available for purchase on his website.
DISCLOSURE: Our son-in-law will be Mr. Stricklin's tour band drummer. However, we do not have any financial interests involved. Dammit.
Last I heard, they're still working on the details of an upcoming tour, so keep checking his website for dates & locations.
Look for an announcement next week that my old undergrad/law school buddy, Paul Suskie, is going to run for state attorney general. Not to gloat or anything, but I've been saying that for years. First AG, then the governorship.
I love the smell of being right first thing in the morning. It smells like.....I told you so.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA
So I'm in our home office yesterday trying to coax my ancient printer to spit out some driving directions I'd downloaded from MapQuest when WildChild appeared. "Ma," says he. "I need 'nvlope."
"Why do you need an envelope?" I asked.
"For this" he said, and held up a small, vaguely trapezoidal piece of yellow construction paper covered with crayon markings. "I wrote Sollie a letter," he said proudly.
Sollie, as you may remember, is our pug. I stifled a giggle and found him a business sized envelope. "WOW! AWESOME! Thanks, Ma!" he yelled, and took off. I kept struggling with the printer, which by now had choked on some graphics and was spitting out page after page of gibberish.
A few minutes later I hear something behind me. It's WildChild, trying to fit the envelope into the typewriter. "I need to write Sollie's name," he said. I take the envelope out to show him how to put it in the typewriter, and discover the problem. Instead of licking the envelope to seal it, he'd covered the back of it with glue. I figure what the hey, the typewriter's an old Remington, and show him how to get the envelope inserted correctly. Then I spell Sollie's name so he can type it on the envelope.
He was quite pleased with the results, and then he started trying to give the envelope to Sollie. Sollie, of course, doesn't want anything to do with it because it's neither food nor a toy. I tell him he'll have to read the letter out loud to Sollie, because Sollie can't read.
A look of scorn. "I know that, Ma. Sollie's a dog." And he giggled. "But I write Sollie a letter because he's my best friend. And I love him." And he gave Sollie a big hug.
Awwww.
He's such a sweet little sillypants sometimes.
Finally, a politician with a good idea.
Complaining that far too many offenders go undetected because each state has different requirements for listing them, [Sen. Charles] Schumer suggested registering every sex offender on single national online list once they're released from jail.
And any offender who fails to comply with a twice-yearly registration would face 10 to 20 years in jail, Schumer said.
I'd go a step further and have it set up in a searchable database like the National Crime Information Center's, and then also have failure to re-register trigger a nation-wide bulletin to all law enforcement. And I'd have two levels of access permitted. Citizens could search it for the same information the individual states' websites provide now. And law enforcement could get more detailed information about an individual.
Add in an interface by which a probation or parole officer could enter a nation wide alert when an offender didn't check in as required, and Bob's your uncle. I'd also make it a Federal felony to use the information to harass anyone listed.
Relatively simple, practical and useful.
What more could you want?
The center of Birmingham is being evacuated by British police.
West Midlands Police said people were being asked to leave the centre, particularly Broad Street, as a "precautionary measure".
No vehicles are being allowed past the inner ring road into the city centre, and there have also been reports of controlled explosions by police.
Police said it was in response to intelligence the force had received.
It's not clear right now if the controlled explosions are of found bombs or just suspicious objects. Fox (tv) is also reporting that everyone evacuating the area is being searched, and that vehicles are not allowed to leave the area.
4 gored in today's run with the bulls at Pamplona.
I just don't get why people do this. I've chased many a pissed-off cow on foot before, and I never saw anything particularly fun about it.
Dumb yes. Manly no.
Court to plaintiff:
Stop wasting our time. (Link via Fark)
It is apodictic that a mere interest in seeing the government turn square corners is not the kind of particularized interest that can satisfy the most basic constitutional prerequisite for standing.
Go read the very nicely written 1st Circuit appellate opinion & be glad you're not the plaintiff's attorney.
Heh.
Just got a warning from the US-CERT National Cyber Alert System about a new trojan e-mail that specifically targets US information & individuals. You can read the alert here.
Sounds like a real nasty one....and it's going to look like it came from someone you know or do business with. So let's all be extra careful out there.
Forewarned is forearmed.
UPDATE: Or maybe not.
When asked by one reporter Friday if any speculation about his resignation is true, Rehnquist said: "That's for me to know and you to find out."
Heh.
According to Drudge, Rehnquist will announce his retirement tonight. If that's true, things will get a whole lot more interesting around the old Capitol.
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
Filibuster that, suckas.
Perverts are everywhere, even in seemingly safe small towns. (Registration req'd)
Boone County Sheriff Danny Hickman said a Searcy County man was arrested in Harrison on Wednesday in a computer child pornography "undercover" investigation.
James David Jackson, 37, of the Marshall area was arrested at the Wal-Mart parking lot Wednesday afternoon, a report shows.
He thought he was meeting a 13 yr. old girl. Instead he was greeted by a police investigator.
Obviously, he's only been charged, not convicted, at this point. But just goes to show you never know about people.
Even your neighbors.
The hunt is on for those responsible for yesterday's London bombing atrocity. London has reportedly the most public surveillence cameras of any city in the world, and police are reviewing tapes for clues. And there's at least one eyewitness report of suspicious behavior.
The Daily Mail reported that passenger Richard Jones, 61, an IT consultant, saw a man in his mid-20s on the bus become "extremely agitated".
He told the Daily Mail he had got off the bus seconds before the blast.
"This chap started dipping down into his bag and getting back up. He did it about a dozen times in two or three minutes and looked extremely agitated."
Significant, because police suspect the bus bomb may have exploded prematurely en route.
And then there's this statement from a person who was at the Liverpool station (scroll down to heading "LISA CURTIS, NEAR LIVERPOOL STREET")
People were evacuated immediately. I overheard one lady saying to a police officer that it looked like someone had left what looked like a brown jumper on the platform and it exploded.
There's other important evidence that has been found as well.
U.S. authorities confirmed a report that British police found two unexploded bombs in London after the morning attacks. Authorities investigating the blasts also recovered parts of explosive timing devices from some of the wreckage sites, FOX News has confirmed. The evidence should help in the search for who was behind the bombings.
Additionally, British Muslim leaders have condemned the bombings and are asking the Muslim community to assist the police in finding those responsible. This may well be the most important source of information, since several of the bombings reportedly took place near largely Muslim areas of the city.
So it looks like chances are pretty good that those responsible will be found. They were pretty stupid, all in all. But then those who try to rule by terror usually are.
And the actual effects of the attack sure didn't work out like intended. At least some attention is being focused on a group of North African extremists, because of the similarities to the Madrid bombings. There was a rally on Wall Street, and oil prices fell. And Londoners aren't panicked and terrified, they're angry and defiant.
"I always get the Underground and I'm not going to stop. I don't want them to win. Not in any way," said a 55-year-old insurance broker, the model of a London businessman in a soberly cut dark suit and pink tie.
"We've got a choice -- do we let them affect us or not? I know what I think," the man, giving his name only as Paul, told Agence France-Presse as he strode off looking for a taxi.
Not a particularly effective strategy, is it? There was a growing anti-war sentiment in the UK until this. Now everyone, anti and pro war, have a common goal:
Get the sorry, low-life bastards who did this.
And they will.
Nelville Chamberlain responds to the bombings. (Hat tip LGF)
*spits*
The death toll has sadly risen to 37 confirmed, which does not include the bus victims, according to Fox (tv). There have only been 2 confirmed deaths on the bus, however expect that to change as police are continuing to work the scene.
According to the BBC, PM Blair has promised "most intense police and security service action to make sure we bring those responsible to justice".
The Beeb has also posted photos taken by persons at the scenes of the bombings, see here and here. From what I see, I can't imagine how anyone survived who was on the top deck of the bus.
Finally, our terror alert has been raised to orange for all mass transit systems. HS Secretary Chertoff has said there's no specific threat, just a precautionary measure.
The BBC is carrying the full text of the statement from the group claiming responsibility for the London bombing.
I'm not sure in which universe they're living, but in my reality-based one London isn't exactly "burning with fear, terror and panic". In fact, I think it's safe to say they're likely more pissed than afraid. Perhaps they should've consulted with the IRA to find out what happens when the Brits get pissed.
This is going to have the opposite effect than what they planned, I suspect. A nation that survived the Blitz is not going to get rattled by a few little piss-ant bombs.
UPDATE: The BBC is now reporting an Islamist website "has posted a statement - purportedly from al-Qaeda - claiming it was behind the attacks." Still no confirmation of these claims. ANSA reports the group is called the "Secret Group of al Qaeda's Jihad in Europe", and has posted warnings for Italy & Denmark to withdraw from Iraq & Afghanistan. Fox just said that the Al-Arabia news agency was carrying similar claims.
Fox just reported a relatively unknown group had claimed responsibility for the bombing 'in the name of al-Queada'. I didn't catch the name, if one was given.
This claim is unconfirmed at this point, BTW.
Now there are unconfirmed reports from a Sky reporter that Scotland Yard sources say a suicide bomber was responsible for the bus explosion.
Tony Blair was just on, said this was clearly a series of terrorist attacks. Still trying to determine all the facts. He said it was equally clear the attacks were directed towards the meeting of the G8, which he called "particularly barbaric".
Further, he stated that Britain, like other civilized nations, are more determined to protect the values they hold dear than the terrorists were determined to cause death and destruction to innocent people.
London police have confirmed at least 6 explosions, multiple casualties. All railway services into London have been stopped, as have all Underground & bus. Also, there's a rescue operation underway at one of the Underground stations, King's Crossing. (Thanks Andy for the correct station name)
UPDATE: BBC is reporting at least 2 confirmed deaths and a "large number" of injuries. PM Tony Blair is to make a statement in a few minutes.
UPDATE: Fox is reporting there were a series of explosions on trains and buses in London....at least 3 on buses. Multiple casualties are now being reported as well.
News services are reporting multiple explosions with casualties in London's Underground system. The cause is not yet known, but the entire system has been shut down.
Additionally, the BBC is reporting an explosive device has also destroyed a double-decker bus in the city. They've also interviewed eyewitnesses who are saying they were evacuated from the Underground because a bomb had been found at one of the stations.
More details as they become available.
This is good news.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has begun a "pro-active recruiting campaign" to find and hire 710 new Border Patrol agents by the end of fiscal 2006 -- most of whom will be assigned along the Mexican border.
The Mexican border has always been a problem, and as the recent ambush of 2 Border Patrol agents illustrates, it is getting more dangerous. Where it used to be illegal Mexican workers and drugs, now it's (potential) terrorists and gangbangers. It's become a serious threat to our national security, and should be shut down.
Here's an idea. This would be a great job for all those who supposedly support the war on terror, but who won't join the military because they're against the Iraq war. You know, the ones who like to call war supporters 'chickenhawks'. But they need a neat little catch phrase too.....something like, hmmmm, maybe 'chickenshits'.
'Put up or shut up' works both ways, you know.
Via Fark, an interesting short history of Southern American English. For the record, not only do I know what a 'singletree' is, I've used one....and a 'doubletree' as well. Even better, I know the correct conjugation of "help" is really:
help
holp
holpen
So there.
Be sure to follow the links on the sidebar to learn how to properly use A-prefixing. And before any of you Yankees get all uppity, follow this link to read about prejudices. While you're there, be sure and read this NYC poem out loud:
"T’ree little boids sittin’ on a coib,
Eatin’ doity woims and sayin’ doity woids."
That's all, y'all.
I guess good manners & friendliness beats food every time in the tourist trade.
Andrea has moved to Least Loved Bedtime Stories. Adjust your linkage accordingly.
Finally, the growing meth epidemic is getting some national attention.
Local officials from across the country yesterday declared methamphetamine the nation's leading law enforcement scourge - a more insidious drug problem than cocaine - and blamed it for crowding jails and fueling increases in theft and violence, as well as for a host of social welfare problems.
Like duh. It's not just a rural problem***. It's everywhere, as are its effects.
The ingredients are highly toxic and highly flammable, often resulting in serious explosions. And the drug itself, which is smoked, inhaled or injected, is extremely addictive, producing a high that lasts several hours and leading to binges that often last days or even weeks.
They cook this shit everywhere too. Crowded neighborhoods, vehicles, motels, I've even read of one kid who was busted for cooking meth in a college laboratory. It blows up real good if not handled properly. And it's not like your average cooker faithfully follows all safety precautions. Tweakers have other priorities.
Seventy percent of counties reported increases in robberies and burglaries because of methamphetamine; 62 percent reported increases in domestic violence; 53 percent reported an increase in assaults; and 27 reported an increase in identity theft.
Half the counties surveyed said one in five inmates were in jail because of methamphetamine crimes. Many counties reported that half their jail populations were incarcerated because of methamphetamine.
The officials said that reports of child abuse had increased as well, with many children neglected while their parents binged and then slept off the high for several days.
Not to mention the resulting child abuse from drug-induced pyschosis and paranoia or the tendency of tweakers to sell anything to support their habit....including their children.
As I've been saying for years, meth is some nasty stuff. And I hope there will be a more serious effort to get it off the streets now.
Otherwise, we as a society will be paying the costs of its damage for a very long time.
Although it's certainly that as well. Here's some estimates from our local law enforcement.
In Washington County it's estimated that four out of every five people arrested are in some way connected to methamphetamine...."About 80% of the folks who come through our facility in some form or fashion are related to methamphetamine use," said Tim Helder, Washington County Sheriff.
Our new law restricting access to ephredine appears to be helping, though.
Sheriff Helder says in Washington and Madison Counties alone they've seen the number of meth lab seizures cut-in-half the last 3 months.
Can't cook it if they can't get the ingredients. Importing it from states which don't restrict access to the ingredients is a much more risky proposition for dealers....and easier for law enforcement to control.
I've not been following the rampant speculation about the President's possible choices to replace Justice O'Connor too closely. (I'm more interested in who gets picked than who might get picked. It's a pragmatist thing.) But Cal Thomas makes a good point in today's Washington Post.
This is the big one, the main event. If the president does not nominate someone who measures up to his often stated view of the court and the Constitution, he can forget about conservative support for anything he wants to do during the rest of his term. Even if he names someone eventually rejected by the Senate, he will get significant support from conservatives and momentum for nominating another conservative.
In other words, don't screw the pooch on this one, George. His choice has the potential to alter the balance of power on the court, which will have far reaching effects on us all for years to come.
I don't envy him the decision. It can be difficult to predict how a judge will rule once on the bench. Judges are human just like every one else. Elevation to the bench can sometimes do strange things to people. You can get some sense of a judge's jurisprudence by examining his or her past opinions and writings, however......which is why a nominee with little track record to examine is like buying a pig in a poke. You might get a decent one, or you might get another Justice O'Connor, who was consistent only in her inconsistency.
Justice O'Connor illustrates another pitfall: picking a justice based on status, rather than ability. Reagan wanted to put the first woman on the Court. And we've all seen how that worked out.
I don't care if a judge is male, female, transgendered, white, black, brown or pee-purple polka-dotted. All I care about is if a judge can follow the law without inserting his or her personal ideology. Judges should not make law based on the way they think things should be, they should interpret it based on the Constitution, precedent and legislative intent. Put someone on the bench who will do their damn job, so we won't get any more decision like Kelo.
I don't think that's asking too much.
Sometimes I stumble across the neatest things online. Like this recording of a Rebel Yell, done by a 92 yr. old. Confederate veteran in 1935. (Found via this interesting article)
Though it's cool enough just that such a recording exists, imagine hearing the same sound x 20,000 or so charging men headed straight for you, guns a'blazing.
Bet that'd set your knees to knocking in a hurry.
Thanks, neighbor. I think.
What I was doing ten years ago: I'd just finished my second year of law school. I spent the summer keeping up with 2 very active teenagers.....and studiously trying to ignore the growing realization I probably wasn't going to be married much longer.
5 years ago: I was taking care of Mike, who was very ill at the time, and working in my law practice. In my spare time (ha) I was making the arrangements for our wedding in NYC in the fall.
1 year ago: Same as today. Recovering from the 4th. We'd gone to my SIL's parents' house in the country, and shot off fireworks for hours. I still had a headache from all the smoke & noise the next day.
Yesterday: See previous post. I'd rather not think about it anymore.
5 snacks I enjoy:
Dark chocolate.
Homemade ice cream.
Kedem tea biscuits.
Tootsie Roll Dots.
Chocolate bonbons that my mom makes every Christmas.
5 songs I know all the words to:
I know all the words to so many songs, I couldn't begin to pick just 5. I can never remember the artists' names though.
5 Things I would do with $100 million:
Become a semi-hermit in the wilds of north-central Arkansas & spend my days yelling "Git offin my property afore I blast ye".
A semi-hermit with my own personal T-3 connection, that is.
And a beach house in Naples, Florida.
Go to the Mayo Clinic and find someone who can figure out the cause of my neuropathy.
Travel.
5 locations I would like to run away to:
Naples, Florida.
San Diego, California.
Florence, Italy.
The Keys.
My own private island off the coast of Florida.
5 bad habits I have:
Smoking.
Eating way too many sweets.
Swearing.
Chewing my lip when I'm stressed.
Saying things out loud that should stay inside my head.
5 things I like doing:
Being married.
Spending time with WildChild.
Traveling.
Reading.
Eating.
5 things I would never wear:
A thong.
A tube top.
Daisy Dukes.
Black spandex pants.
A lingerie top instead of a blouse under a suit.
5 TV shows I like:
The newest Law & Order, the one with what's her name who played Lilith on Fraser.
Mythbusters.
Scrubs.
Most things on the History Channel.
I can't think of another one. I hate most tv shows, they're stupid.
5 Biggest joys of the moment:
My family.
Getting more than 3 hours sleep, which happens way too rarely right now.
Dark chocolate.
Our silly dogs.
My car.
5 Favorite toys:
My car.
My laptop.
My S&W .357, though that's really a tool not a toy.
My tea pot.
Our ice cream freezer.
5 Next victims:
Keith
Craig, if he has time.
Joanie
Andy
Jim
So there.
We took WildChild to my parents' yesterday for a stay. It was a trip from hell from the start. A very cranky 4 yr. old who had to be awaken too early and the holiday traffic made the drive down interminable. We kept getting stuck behind idiots who drove 90 to nothing on the few passing lanes, then slowed to 40 or less once no one could pass them. It was ghastly.
We finally turned off onto the dirt road leading to my parents, and noticed the car was driving funny. At first we just thought it was because it needs its struts replaced, but I kept having this nagging vague feeling that I'd had vehicles drive like that before on dirt roads. It finally hit me.
Aw, shit!
We had a flat tire. Not just low, but tire barely hanging on, driving on the rim flat. We were almost to my parents' house, so we limped along so Mike could change the tire in the safety of their yard rather than on the very narrow road.
The tire was unpatchable. Crap. And we only had that stupid fake spare tire, the one that says "Do not drive over 50 mph while using". So there we were, about 125 miles from home with a ruined tire on the 4th of July, a holiday on which almost every business in that area is closed.
Thank the good Lord for the nice people at the Harrison Wal-Mart Tire & Lube Express, who had us safely back on the road in about 30 minutes.....once we had slowly crept our white-knuckled way there that is.
Sheesh. What a day.
But we have 2 boxes full of fresh corn. Lovely, yummy, delicious corn my dad grew (Peaches 'n Cream variety). It's my favorite. And WildChild's too, judging from the way he slurped down a full-sized cob in record time. I swear, I don't think a starving raccoon could've stripped a corn cob any faster than that child did at lunch yesterday. And he ate most of a second one in much the same fashion.
If it would only shuck & de-silk itself, it would be the absolute perfect corn on the cob. But I don't mind doing that so much if it means we can have some in the dead of winter.
It's that good.
I sure got a chuckle out of this.
The United Church of Christ's rule-making body voted overwhelmingly yesterday to approve a resolution endorsing same-sex "marriage," making it the largest Christian denomination to do so.
No disrespect intended for anyone affected. This is personal. My kids' bio father faithfully attends a splinter sect of the Church of Christ. He is also one of the most homophobic people I've ever known.
And now his church is telling him I was right all along.
As I've said before, I love the smell of being right first thing in the morning. It smells like....I told you so.
Heh.
Like a lot of people, our days of roughing it are over.
Tourism specialists say boomers' preference for cushier vacations is contributing to a decline in campers and other visitors at parks nationwide.
The days of my being able to sleep on a quilt thrown down on a gravel bar by the river are, sadly, long gone. As much as I enjoy traveling, when it's bedtime, I want a nice, comfortable bed....preferably my own.
Now if I could just figure out a way to pack our waterbed, I'd be a happy camper.
We just got the happy news that my son and his girlfriend are planning to be married soon. No official date as of yet, but 'very soon' he said. She is a very nice girl, we liked her a lot and WildChild just adored her, and she & my son are crazy about each other best we could tell. So we're very happy for the two of them.
And from the looks of things yesterday, Mike's son and his girlfriend may be next. Which we're very happy about as well, as she is a real sweetheart.
We've got to get a bigger house. I'm expecting it to start raining grandchildren just any day now.
I hope so anyway.
There are some of life's little mysteries with which I'm comfortable. Like the differences in people's senses of humor. Yesterday, WildChild tuned the living room tv and the tv in his room to the same program, and spend much of the afternoon running between the two, laughing himself silly. Apparently, this is hilarious when you're 4 yrs. old. I didn't quite get it, but I finally decided it was the Jerry Lewis thing. I don't think he's funny, but some people do. And I'll never understand why, no matter how hard I try.
Another is that sometimes there's things I'm just better off not knowing. When we were driving back from his mom's yesterday, I told WildChild about my daughter's new kitten and that she'd named him Jack-Jack. Now he's a huge Incredibles fan, and the thought of a kitten named Jack-Jack just cracked him up. He just laughed and laughed and laughed.....and then he stopped suddenly and said solemnly "I call [my cousin] Jack-Jack." (This cousin is around 6 months old.)
"Oh," I said. "Because he's all bouncy and is always getting into things?"
"Nah," WildChild replied. "It's because he shoots out fire."
I opened my mouth a couple of times, but decided you know, I really didn't want to know.
Sometimes it's better that way.
Mexico is facing increasing criticism over its release of the Memin Pinguin stamps. And from some of the comments I've seen,
"Frankly, I don't understand the reaction," Mr. Fox said. "Let's hope they inform themselves ... and later form an opinion."
...
Novelist Elena Poniatowska, a noted supporter of leftist causes, was quoted in the newspaper La Jornada as calling the criticisms "absurd."
"In our country, the image of black people is one of enormous good will, which is reflected not only in characters like Memin Pinguin, but in popular songs ... like 'Little Black Watermelon,' " a song about an unruly black boy.
Some of the defense appeared to be founded in what is seen as a relative lack of knowledge about the history of blacks in Mexico.
"It's the United States, not Mexico, that has a history of slavery," wrote columnist Sergio Sarmiento in the newspaper Reforma.
I'm not all that familiar with Mexican culture, but I should think things like 'Little Black Watermelon', Fox's previous remarks about how Mexicans do the jobs blacks won't do and now the apparent cultural acceptability of the stamps give some indication of their attitudes towards blacks. (The quote that Mexico has no history of slavery is too ignorant to even respond to.) And I've got a flash for President Fox:
If you want open borders, you might want to consider joining the rest of us in the 21st century.
So, Justice O'Connor is retiring from the Supremes. I hope the President does a better job than his predecessors picking her replacement. Cuz I tell you, IMHO, they ain't been much punkins.
And from what I've read about those on his short list, I'm not too impressed.
In case you haven't noticed, one of the side effects of my steroids is insomnia....which strangely enough seems to be increasing as my dosage decreases.
You know how boring it is to be wide awake at 2 a.m. with nothing to do?
It. Really. Sux.
ROTF! I have to get one of these. Hell, it'd be worth $120 just to watch it in action. Go watch the video.
You'll want one too.
Florida child killer Couey's confession may be inamissable evidence.
John Couey, accused of murder in the death of Jessica Lunsford, asked for an attorney on March 17, the day before he confessed, according to the transcript of his questioning released by police.
Go read the transcript at the link. Now I'm no criminal attorney, but WTF were those detectives thinking?
Another law enforcement source involved in the case told CNN that even if Couey's confession is suppressed by the court, there is sufficient evidence to prosecute.
They better hope so. If this prosecution goes belly-up because of this, they'll be the most unpopular people on the planet.
To say the least.
New census figures show the population shift to NWA continues.
The new numbers, which were released Thursday, show that Bentonville has seen a 41 percent increase in population growth since 2000. In addition, Springdale is now the sixth largest city in the state with almost 56,000 people living there -- a number that's up 22 percent since the last census.
Fort Smith, by contrast, had only an 2% increase in the same period.
Jeez, no wonder we're having such a hard time finding a decent, affordable house in B-ville.
I don't care how this got passed, it's a good thing.
Democrats celebrated a rare Capitol Hill victory on military affairs yesterday, crowing over having forced House Republicans to rush to pass an emergency spending bill for a $1 billion shortfall in veterans health care coverage.
My dad was permanently disabled in the Korean War before I was born, so you might say I've over 40 years experience dealing with the VA. And IMHO, the way our veterans have been treated is a dirty, rotten shame. While it's a ka-jillion times better now than back in the old days****, there's still plenty of room for improvement.
I think we owe it to them.
Wanna know how bad it was? Years ago, when my grandfather, a Navy veteran, became seriously ill with what would eventually kill him, he went to the VA Hospital in Little Rock. Poor and unwilling to take government assistance, it was the only place he could go. The family quickly discovered a problem:
Someone had to stay in his hospital room at all times to keep the rats run out.
I am not kidding.
