Nothing new under the Earth and Sky

Google has a new add-on feature for google earth - the sky! I've only been able to get the demo to run. Google seems to be having several problems today, including keeping blogger up and running.

Interesting story in the in International Herald Tribune yesterday - seems Moscow runs out of hot water in the summer time.

Also in Moscow, another painful penis story. What is with all the penis stories this week?

Bushie is backing away from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq.

However, Gordon Johndroe says otherwise:

National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the president's words were not intended to signal a withdrawal of support for al-Maliki. As a result of the heavy media coverage of his remarks at the North American summit in Canada, Bush will insert a direct line of support for al-Maliki in his speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars conference, Johndroe said.

"Prime Minister Maliki knows where the president stands," Johndroe told reporters ahead of Bush's speech. The spokesman said that after Bush's comments in Canada, the White House had tried to make clear Bush was not distancing himself from Maliki.

"It appears that did not come through for whatever reason," Johndroe said.

Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani is also "disgusted" with al-Maliki, apparently. Bush backing away from al-Maliki is probably a good thing for the Prime Minister, Sistani being disgusted is not. I hope al-Maliki's bodyguards are well paid and like their client.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told France's RTL Radio from Baghdad that Europe must play a bigger role in Iraq because "the Americans will not be able to get this country out of difficulty alone." Kouchner is wrapping a three-day visit to Iraq.

Not just Europe, but the UN and a Pan-Arab league needs to go in and fix the nightmare we created.

In other cheery news, A new push for change in the war on terror, in the Christian Science Monitor:

The US is losing the war on terror. That's the assessment of the nation's top foreign-policy, intelligence, and national-security leaders from across the ideological spectrum. In this year's Terrorism Index, a survey released Monday by Foreign Policy magazine, 84 percent of these experts believe the nation is losing the war on terror, while more than 90 percent say the world is growing more dangerous for Americans.

That's prompted a variety of leaders to call for a complete rethinking of the nation's strategy. And some are looking back to the cold war's battle against communism to find models for the ideological struggle against terrorism.

Um... no one won the Cold War. Russia just collapsed. Is that the strategy? Fight a boogey man for 50 years until it just goes away?

Another is a call for a Middle East Marshall Plan to help develop the region's economies and confront the alienation of the young.

This actually makes some sense and it's something many humanitarian groups have been talking about for more than a decade - long before 9/11 and the US War on Terra. Terrorism, terrorists, flourish in poverty; the people they recruit have nothing to lose and their families have everything to gain.

Dwarf's penis gets stuck in vacuum cleaner

It's a rainy, dreary day here in Connecticut. It's a helluva lot worse in Mexico. Drop a shekel or three in a collection plate for Hurricane Dean relief.

Since it's a rainy day here, I'll leave you with some reading material.

Starving Gaza, by Chris Hedges, at Truthdig:

Gaza has become the Sarajevo of the Middle East. Israel, in an action similar to that of the Serbs in Bosnia, has surrounded and cut off nearly a million and a half Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since the Islamic militant group Hamas took control in June. Electric fences and watch towers manned by Israeli soldiers keep the Palestinians trapped inside the strip. The land and sea blockade, the halting of all but minimal humanitarian aid and the refusal to allow Gaza to receive financial support are crushing Gaza’s industry, farming and infrastructure.

See also:

Gaza's public employees getting paid on one condition: stay home

Genocide in Tranquil Kurdistan.

Scott Ritter: Calling Out Idiot America (an old article, but still interesting).

From Truthout comes:

Prelude to an Attack on Iran, originally published in Time Magazine.

And what do we do if just the opposite happens - a strike on Iran unifies Iranians behind the regime? An Administration official told me it's not even a consideration. "IRGC IED's are a casus belli for this administration. There will be an attack on Iran."

Survivors of Bombs Left to Die in Rubble.

British military sparks US fears of losing Basra:

Stephen Biddle, who sits on the Council on Foreign Relations and is a member of a group that advised the US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, told the The Sunday Times in London that coalition forces were no longer in control of the city.

"I regret to say that the Basra experience is set to become a major blunder in terms of military history," Mr Biddle was quoted as saying. "The insurgents are calling the shots … and in a worst-case scenario will chase us out of town."

Another senior US officer told The Sunday Telegraph: "The short version is that the Brits have lost Basra, if indeed they ever had it … They did not have enough troops there even before they started cutting back. The situation is beyond their control."

The officer warned of "a stink about this that will hang around the British military".

The old expression "lie down with dogs, wake up with fleas" comes to mind for some reason.

And the most important story of the day, from the bin of "you can't make this shit up":

Dwarf's penis gets stuck in vacuum cleaner.

A view from the ground

Originally posted at NYT and Truthout.org:

The War As We Saw It

By Buddhika Jayamaha, Wesley D. Smith, Jeremy Roebuck, Omar Mora, Edward Sandmeier, Yance T. Gray and Jeremy A. Murphy
The New York Times

Sunday 19 August 2007

Viewed from Iraq at the tail end of a 15-month deployment, the political debate in Washington is indeed surreal. Counterinsurgency is, by definition, a competition between insurgents and counterinsurgents for the control and support of a population. To believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived its reluctant welcome, can win over a recalcitrant local population and win this counterinsurgency is far-fetched. As responsible infantrymen and noncommissioned officers with the 82nd Airborne Division soon heading back home, we are skeptical of recent press coverage portraying the conflict as increasingly manageable and feel it has neglected the mounting civil, political and social unrest we see every day. (Obviously, these are our personal views and should not be seen as official within our chain of command.)

The claim that we are increasingly in control of the battlefields in Iraq is an assessment arrived at through a flawed, American-centered framework. Yes, we are militarily superior, but our successes are offset by failures elsewhere. What soldiers call the "battle space" remains the same, with changes only at the margins. It is crowded with actors who do not fit neatly into boxes: Sunni extremists, Al Qaeda terrorists, Shiite militiamen, criminals and armed tribes. This situation is made more complex by the questionable loyalties and Janus-faced role of the Iraqi police and Iraqi Army, which have been trained and armed at United States taxpayers' expense.

A few nights ago, for example, we witnessed the death of one American soldier and the critical wounding of two others when a lethal armor-piercing explosive was detonated between an Iraqi Army checkpoint and a police one. Local Iraqis readily testified to American investigators that Iraqi police and Army officers escorted the triggermen and helped plant the bomb. These civilians highlighted their own predicament: had they informed the Americans of the bomb before the incident, the Iraqi Army, the police or the local Shiite militia would have killed their families.

As many grunts will tell you, this is a near-routine event. Reports that a majority of Iraqi Army commanders are now reliable partners can be considered only misleading rhetoric. The truth is that battalion commanders, even if well meaning, have little to no influence over the thousands of obstinate men under them, in an incoherent chain of command, who are really loyal only to their militias.

Similarly, Sunnis, who have been underrepresented in the new Iraqi armed forces, now find themselves forming militias, sometimes with our tacit support. Sunnis recognize that the best guarantee they may have against Shiite militias and the Shiite-dominated government is to form their own armed bands. We arm them to aid in our fight against Al Qaeda.

However, while creating proxies is essential in winning a counterinsurgency, it requires that the proxies are loyal to the center that we claim to support. Armed Sunni tribes have indeed become effective surrogates, but the enduring question is where their loyalties would lie in our absence. The Iraqi government finds itself working at cross purposes with us on this issue because it is justifiably fearful that Sunni militias will turn on it should the Americans leave.

In short, we operate in a bewildering context of determined enemies and questionable allies, one where the balance of forces on the ground remains entirely unclear. (In the course of writing this article, this fact became all too clear: one of us, Staff Sergeant Murphy, an Army Ranger and reconnaissance team leader, was shot in the head during a "time-sensitive target acquisition mission" on Aug. 12; he is expected to survive and is being flown to a military hospital in the United States.) While we have the will and the resources to fight in this context, we are effectively hamstrung because realities on the ground require measures we will always refuse - namely, the widespread use of lethal and brutal force.

Given the situation, it is important not to assess security from an American-centered perspective. The ability of, say, American observers to safely walk down the streets of formerly violent towns is not a resounding indicator of security. What matters is the experience of the local citizenry and the future of our counterinsurgency. When we take this view, we see that a vast majority of Iraqis feel increasingly insecure and view us as an occupation force that has failed to produce normalcy after four years and is increasingly unlikely to do so as we continue to arm each warring side.

Coupling our military strategy to an insistence that the Iraqis meet political benchmarks for reconciliation is also unhelpful. The morass in the government has fueled impatience and confusion while providing no semblance of security to average Iraqis. Leaders are far from arriving at a lasting political settlement. This should not be surprising, since a lasting political solution will not be possible while the military situation remains in constant flux.

The Iraqi government is run by the main coalition partners of the Shiite-dominated United Iraqi Alliance, with Kurds as minority members. The Shiite clerical establishment formed the alliance to make sure its people did not succumb to the same mistake as in 1920: rebelling against the occupying Western force (then the British) and losing what they believed was their inherent right to rule Iraq as the majority. The qualified and reluctant welcome we received from the Shiites since the invasion has to be seen in that historical context. They saw in us something useful for the moment.

Now that moment is passing, as the Shiites have achieved what they believe is rightfully theirs. Their next task is to figure out how best to consolidate the gains, because reconciliation without consolidation risks losing it all. Washington's insistence that the Iraqis correct the three gravest mistakes we made - de-Baathification, the dismantling of the Iraqi Army and the creation of a loose federalist system of government - places us at cross purposes with the government we have committed to support.

Political reconciliation in Iraq will occur, but not at our insistence or in ways that meet our benchmarks. It will happen on Iraqi terms when the reality on the battlefield is congruent with that in the political sphere. There will be no magnanimous solutions that please every party the way we expect, and there will be winners and losers. The choice we have left is to decide which side we will take. Trying to please every party in the conflict - as we do now - will only ensure we are hated by all in the long run.

At the same time, the most important front in the counterinsurgency, improving basic social and economic conditions, is the one on which we have failed most miserably. Two million Iraqis are in refugee camps in bordering countries. Close to two million more are internally displaced and now fill many urban slums. Cities lack regular electricity, telephone services and sanitation. "Lucky" Iraqis live in gated communities barricaded with concrete blast walls that provide them with a sense of communal claustrophobia rather than any sense of security we would consider normal.

In a lawless environment where men with guns rule the streets, engaging in the banalities of life has become a death-defying act. Four years into our occupation, we have failed on every promise, while we have substituted Baath Party tyranny with a tyranny of Islamist, militia and criminal violence. When the primary preoccupation of average Iraqis is when and how they are likely to be killed, we can hardly feel smug as we hand out care packages. As an Iraqi man told us a few days ago with deep resignation, "We need security, not free food."

In the end, we need to recognize that our presence may have released Iraqis from the grip of a tyrant, but that it has also robbed them of their self-respect. They will soon realize that the best way to regain dignity is to call us what we are - an army of occupation - and force our withdrawal.

Until that happens, it would be prudent for us to increasingly let Iraqis take center stage in all matters, to come up with a nuanced policy in which we assist them from the margins but let them resolve their differences as they see fit. This suggestion is not meant to be defeatist, but rather to highlight our pursuit of incompatible policies to absurd ends without recognizing the incongruities.

We need not talk about our morale. As committed soldiers, we will see this mission through.

Buddhika Jayamaha is an Army specialist. Wesley D. Smith is a sergeant. Jeremy Roebuck is a sergeant. Omar Mora is a sergeant. Edward Sandmeier is a sergeant. Yance T. Gray is a staff sergeant. Jeremy A. Murphy is a staff sergeant.

Pass it on.

Okay, who left the door open?

Seems the Universe has disappeared. Well, 96% anyway.

Greatest Mysteries: Where is the Rest of the Universe?

In fact, only 4 percent of the matter and energy in the universe has been found. The other 96 percent remains elusive, but scientists are looking in the farthest reaches of space and deepest depths of Earth to solve the two dark riddles.

Now you know why your parents always told you to shut the door! See what you did?

Turner described dark energy as "really weird stuff," best thought of as an elastic, repulsive gravity that can't be broken down into particles. "We know what it does, but we don't know what it is," Turner said.

That's what I told my 10th grade Chemistry teacher when he asked me how I managed to burn the entire lab table: I knew what it did, I just didn't know how I did it. He strongly urged me to avoid sciences - finance would be safer.

Too bad that guy wasn't around to advise Karl Rove, evil minion of DOOM! Well, thankfully, he's a goin' bye bye, but I'm sure he'll be on Dumbasses speed dial.

Strangest things in space.

No, I'm not on the list.

~ ~ ~

I believe the Earth has it's own cycles, just like people do. Every few hundred years the weather patterns shift, just as they are doing today. Vineyards flourished in England once upon a time; sea-levels have been muich higher and much lower than they are now. Life changes. I have no doubt human beings polluting the Earth makes the shifts in climate worse, but I'm not sure I buy the whole Global Warming spiel. Then I see this:

NASA Data Goof Fuels Global Warming Skepticism:

A small tempest is brewing in the blogospheric teapot between climate scientists and global warming skeptics over a recently revealed discrepancy in NASA's U.S. temperature records.

A former mining executive who manages a Web site dedicated to skepticism over global warming was combing the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies data for U.S. temperature anomalies—or the amount that one year's average temperature departs from the climatological average—when he noticed that the temperatures made an odd jump between 1999 and 2000.

Global Warming: How Do Scientists Know They're Not Wrong?

~ ~ ~

Queen of Mean, dead at 87

That would be Leona Helmsley. Before her life with Harry,:

She married a lawyer, Leo Panzirer, whom she divorced in 1959. Their only child, Jay Panzirer, later ran a Florida-based building supplies company that did extensive business with Helmsley properties. She later was briefly married to a garment industry executive, Joe Lubin.

Before her son's death of a heart attack in 1982, she told interviewers she would not talk about him "because terrible things can happen to people these days."

She evidently was referring to being knifed by robbers at her Palm Beach home in 1973. She was stabbed in the chest and suffered a collapsed lung, and Harry was wounded in the arm.

After her son died, she sued the estate for money and property she said her son had borrowed, and an eviction notice was served on her son's widow, Mimi.

Mimi Panzirer said afterward that the legal costs wiped her out and "to this day I don't know why they did it."

Rest in peace Leona.

~ ~ ~

Someone with more cats (and probably yarn) than I have. That makes my day!

That's all phoques!

No, I'm not turning this into Cute Overload, but I just couldn't resist posting this picture. It's a phoque! Seal to the rest of us. He's adorable! I want one! Sadly my building has a no phoque policy. Beasts!

Rest in Peace Scooter

Phil Rizzuto, Yankees' Hall of Fame shortstop and longtime broadcaster, dies at 89


IMO - all time greatest sports announcer. Period. End of story. The clowns around today are just a waste of time and space. I end up watching baseball with the sound off because I find these people so annoying and inane.

While many announcers spouted statistics, Rizzuto told stories. He delighted television and radio listeners by spinning yarns about his fear of lightning, his favorite place to get a cannoli and the prospect of outfielder Dave Winfield as a candidate for president.

Add insult to injury, the Yankees lost 12 zip to Baltimore. sigh

Yankees Hall of Famer, Broadcaster Phil Rizzuto

~ ~ ~

Happy Birthday Napoleon!

Rats abandoning the ship

Rovie wants to spend more time with his family.

He has a family?

"He's a great colleague, a good friend, and a brilliant mind. He will be greatly missed, but we know he wouldn't be going if he wasn't sure this was the right time to be giving more to his family, his wife Darby and their son. He will continue to be one of the president's greatest friends."

White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said.

I'm still hopeful for indictments and orange jumpsuits.

Karl Rove at Wiki.

I'm back!

Sorta. Kinda.


Well, I'm here now anyway! Thank you to everyone who posted/emailed to say you missed me. I've missed you all too!

I can't believe it's August already. It's been a really strange year.

A bookmark for me and you: History of Pie.

Yup, I'm making pies this weekend.

Fashionista I am not

If I had any place to wear ^ that, I'd buy it in a heart beat. Unfortunately I have no place to wear it to. Even if I did, I'd stand out like a sore thumb.

It's sad that people don't dress up anymore. If I had it my way men would be in tuxedos 24x7x365 - evening dress (formal attire) would be de rigueur for all occasions. Men would wear hats again. Nice hats, not baseball caps.

I'm tired of the dress-down look. I go to the office each day in jeans and tee's, true, but I want a little more glamour in my life. More color, more sparkle. More like this or this .

I'm still around

That cracked me up! Apparently France is the home of the World's Biggest Whiners and Ireland is home to the most content:

Britons come second to their Gallic cousins in the moaning stakes, followed by Sweden, the United States and Australia. Japanese workers have the lowest morale, but don't complain so much.

Jerry Falwell is dead. I'm sure his family will miss him, but I'm glad the world is spared any more of his moronic, completely stupid, bullshit. If there is a God, I hope he gives Jerry hell.

Wildenstein & Company

Will be exhibiting 62 (holy cow!) works of Claude Monet from April 27 through June 15.

Everyone in my family better stay healthy and whole so I get a chance to head down to the exhibit.

Life is still hectic and tiring. It's getting better though. I can see some light at the end of the tunnel. It's been a long, long ten weeks.

Belated Happy Easter

Peeps are evil.

Dad had yet another proceedure to deal with the clogged arteries on April 5th. It went well, but not as well as the last time. After all he's been through that's not surprising. He has another appointment with the urologist to determine how, and when, they'll be dealing with the bladder issues that came up as a result of his stay in Norwalk hopital. The only good news the urologist has imparted, to date, is that he doesn't have cancer.

I'll take good news where ever I can find it these days.

Gretchen's hard cast came off Friday and she's now in a soft cast, which looks like something the Storm Troopers wore in the original Star Wars, for... a while. No end date so far. She starts physical therapy next Monday.

So, I'm still shuttling between my home, her home, our parents home, every day. It's either getting easier or I'm just getting used to this.

When will it end?

1461 Days.

Roughly

35064 hours
2103840 minutes
126230400 seconds

since the war began.

When will it end?

Days of Protests

Happy Birthday Dad

Dad finally made it home on Wednesday, March 7. The IV pump should be finished today and he goes back for more testing to make sure the staph is gone.

Fingers crossed.

The catheter remains in place and there is still an alarming amount of blood in his urine - mostly due to the blood thinners he's on. He's back to the urologist tomorrow.

Gretchen's ankle is finally coming back together but she's got another month in the hard cast and then a couple of weeks in a soft cast or brace before physical therapy starts.

I'm tired. I've been listening to a lot of Leonard Cohen in the car over the past couple of weeks. Serendipiously, Elsa has been talking about him recently. Gretchen thinks he's depressing, but then she likes listening to Country and Western, so what does she know? :) Anyway, I've found his stuff oddly soothing for the past couple of weeks.

Unusual Sunday Blogging

Dad may, or may not, be released from prison on Monday. The idiots at Norwalk hospital haven't decided yet. He's responding well to the meds but he's still going to need two to four weeks of IV antibiotics to combat the staph infection. He's opted to go home and not a rehab or nursing facility. I'm not thrilled but it's his (and Mom's) decision to make. There's still no decision on when he'll be able to have the other artery "scraped". The longer they wait the worse the plaque build up, but he's in no condition to have operation for at least a month. Thank you Norwalk Hospital.

The plate my sister had surgically implanted in her ankle, to draw the fibula (tibia? whatever bone opposite the ankle) to the ankle and to secure the tendon was less than successful. The ankle is still disconnected. The doctor is "hoping" that over the next week the plate and screws will do their work and bring the ankle back into place. If not, they have to re-operate.

I've come to the conclusion that the entire medical profession in the United States is comprised of fuckwits. Brainless, heartless, fuckwits.

Mom and I are moving my sister down to Westport today. Centralizing the walking, and non-walking, wounded is essential. We just can't keep up with both of them being in two places 20 miles apart.

~ ~ ~

Clouds marred my viewing of the eclipse last night. I hope you had a better view.

Life's but a walking shadow

Staphylococcus

That's what Dad has picked up during his stay at Norwalk Hospital. I found out last night when I went to see him.

I hate these people. I want to carpet bomb the whole goddamn facility. I want to ship these bastards off to Gitmo. After I torture them.

The array of tests he was in the hospital for show that there is a 70 percent blockage of his left carotid artery and he was supposed to go back to Yale for a consultation today and surgery next week. Only now he can't because he's stuck in Norwalk for another week and then two to four weeks of recovery either in a nursing home (he's 68 on March 12) or at home because he'll need antibiotics delivered via IV for that long. This staph infection is in his left arm and has entered his blood stream. They're relatively certain it hasn't entered his heart.

Eight years ago on the 27th of this month I lost my Mother. It was a blessing for her, when she died. She suffered so long. I'm not ready for this, the reality of he might not survive all that's going on in his body.

I'm just not ready for this but I don't have any choice. I just have to suck it up and deal.

She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Praise Yeshua, it's a Boy!

Did these stone chests contain the body of Christ and his wife?

Archaeologists have reportedly deciphered the names on the tombs, including Yeshua (Hebrew for Jesus) son of Joseph, Mary, Mary and Judah, son of Yeshua. In New York yesterday, Cameron unveiled two of the coffins he claims belonged to Jesus and Mary Magdalene. "I think this is the biggest archaeological story of the century," he said.

Lawdamighty, the shit is gonna hit the fan. Airing on the Discovery channel on Sunday, March 4.

~ ~ ~

As of last night Dad was still in Norwalk hospital. There is a 70 percent blockage of the left carotid artery - he had the right side "cleaned" in mid-January. The doctors were going to run another MRI today.

May you live in interesting times.

It's been an interesting week.

Wedneday I went to the funeral of my niece's Aunt Denise. She was 37. Coming home from work last Thursday she slipped on the ice, knocked herself unconscious and died, in her driveway, of hypothermia. Her Mother found her at 6:45 am Friday.

Last Friday, February 16, 2007, my sister calls to say she's broken her ankle by falling on the ice. I spend the rest of the day in the ER with her. The hospital declares she needs surgery, but take her home until Monday 'cause they're not doing surgery at 5:30 pm on a Friday night. This was just the beginning of several WTF coversations I've had all week.

I get the crippled one back to her house, up two flights of stairs, and one of my brother calls. Seems my Dad, who had the plaque scraped out of his arteries in January, had gone numb down the right side of his body. After a six hour car ride to Maine I suggested he not take. Should we take him to the ER? my brother wants to know.

No, no... just let him lie there on the floor until dead, mkay?

Several bizarre and mind-blowing conversations with doctors in Maine, doctors in Connecticut, it's decided that another brother would drive our parents back to Connecticut on Sunday. Both Dad and my sister had doctor's appointments on Monday. Which ended up happening on Thursday instead, because gawdfuckingforbid a doctor bother his/her uselessfuckingarse to tend to a patient. I spent Thursday with Dad at Yale while Mom spent the day with my sister who was having pins and plates put into her ankle.

According to the medical geniuses at Yale, after doing several different scans of both the brain and body, Dad's fine. No problem. He can go home. Most likely a pinched nerve from the driving, that's the ticket. Really, they assure me, he's fine.

So, today, he's in Norwalk Hospital. Numbness down the right side, feels like his head is unattached from his body. Not that he's a having a stroke, they tell me. But they're keeping him for the weekend for observation. Just in case.

Happy New Year

Or not.

Fortune: Year of Pig will bring disaster:

Pig years can be turbulent because they are dominated by fire and water, conflicting elements that tend to cause havoc, Lo said.

"Fire sitting on water is a symbol of conflict and skirmish," he said. "We'll also see more fire disasters and bombings."

He noted that the Russian AK-47 rifle, a weapon of choice among insurgents around the world, was invented during a pig year.

"So it will not be surprising to see more gunbattles, murder with guns and bombing attacks in 2007," he said.

~ ~ ~

Hardaway dumped from NBA events for anti-gay tirade:

"I want to apologize for my comments yesterday regarding gays," Hardaway's statement said. "My comments were offensive and I regret making them. I'm sorry to anyone I have offended."

Oh bullshit Hardaway. You're not the least bit sorry. You're just pissed it's cost you something. You said:

"I hate gay people," Hardaway said. "I let it be known I don't like gay people and I don't like to be around gay people. I am homophobic. I don't like it. It shouldn't be in the world or in the United States sports."

If someone said "I hate black people", or "I hate white people", "I hate..." whatever, you'd be all over that, wouldn't you? You'd be right, too. There's no difference, Mister. They're as human as you are, they are as entitled to the same respect and honor as you are. Or were, before you opened your stupid mouth.

"You know I don't think he should be in the locker room while we're in the locker room. I wouldn't even be a part of that. There's a lot of other people I hear who are like that and still in the closet. I don't like that."

Yeah, thanks to idiots like you, there are a lot of people still in the closet. Their lives are filled with pain and anquish thanks to morons like you. Mr. Amaechi answered your... filth... better than I can. Go read it.

Jackass.

~ ~ ~

On to more pleasant things ~

Greek archaeologists discover theater:

Fifteen rows of concentric stone seats have been located so far in the northwestern suburb of Menidi, according to Vivi Vassilopoulou, Greece's general director of antiquities.

"Another section appears to lie under a nearby road," she told The Associated Press.

"(The remains) were discovered during excavation work, supervised by archaeologists, for a new building," Vassilopoulou said. "But it is still very early to offer any conclusions."

The structure has not yet been dated, and further details are expected to emerge following a full excavation.

Menidi is thought to be built over the ancient village of Acharnae, the largest of a string of rural settlements outside ancient Athens. Ancient writers mention a theater at Acharnae, but no traces of it had been found until now.

The village was linked with Dionysos, the ancient god of theater and wine, as the Athenians believed that ivy — his sacred plant — first grew there.

Built in semicircular tiers on hillsides, ancient theaters were monumental, open-air structures that could seat thousands of spectators.

Theater first emerged as an art form in late 6th century B.C. Athens, where ancient playwrights competed for a prize during the annual festival of Dionysos — in whose cult the art originated.

The works of Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides and Aristophanes were performed in the theater of Dionysos under the Acropolis.

Originally a terrace where spectators sat on the bare earth above a circular stage, it was rebuilt in stone during the 4th century B.C. and could sit up to 14,000 people.

Seriously cool!

One Less Axis of Evil State?

North Korea to Close Reactor in Exchange for Raft of Aid

The NYT headline lacks gravitas, in my opinion. Gave me a mental image of rafts of food and fuel be floated over to North Korea.

Anyway...

The partner nations agreed to provide roughly $400 million in various kinds of aid in return for the North starting a permanent disabling of its nuclear facilities and allowing inspectors into the country.

Perhaps equally important, the United States and Japan agreed to discuss normalizing relations with Pyongyang. The United States will begin the process of removing North Korea from its designation as a terror-sponsoring state and also on ending U.S. trade and financial sanctions.

Among the negotiators, Japan did not agree to the aid package, however, saying it first needs to work out further bilateral issues regarding abductions by the North.

The accord sets a 60-day deadline for North Korea to accomplish the first steps toward disarmament, and leaves until an undefined moment — and to another negotiation — the actual removal of North Korea's nuclear weapons and the fuel manufactured to produce them.

Under the agreement, the first part of the aid -- 50,000 tons of fuel oil, or an equivalent value of economic or humanitarian aid -- would be provided by South Korea, Russia, China and the United States; in the case of the United States, that would require congressional approval, which is likely to be difficult to get.

For disabling the reactor and declaring all nuclear programs, the North will eventually receive another 950,000 tons in aid. Further negotiations are to begin on March 19 in Beijing.

I've got my fingers crossed. I hope it works.

But North Korea has sidestepped previous agreements, and is thought to have many mountainside tunnels where it can hide projects.

It's the first time I'll give props to the Bush Administration. Negotiation over annihilation is a good thing boys. Now work on fixing the nightmare you've created in Iraq.

~ ~ ~

We're waiting for the storm currently blanketing the mid-West to arrive on the East Coast. Some fool weather-person will give the storm a name no doubt. Maybe if the National Weather Center didn't issue its warning in all caps people wouldn't get all worked up:

/O.NEW.KOKX.WS.W.0001.070213T2300Z- 070215T0300Z/ NORTHERN FAIRFIELD- 503 AM EST TUE FEB 13 2007

...WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 6 PM THIS EVENING TO 10 PM EST WEDNESDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN UPTON HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WARNING... WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 6 PM THIS EVENING TO 10 PM EST WEDNESDAY.

LIGHT SNOW IS EXPECTED TO BEGIN LATE THIS AFTERNOON...BECOMING STEADIER AND HEAVIER TONIGHT. AS WARMER AIR MOVES INTO THE REGION WEDNESDAY...THE SNOW WILL LIKELY MIX WITH SLEET DURING THE DAY...POSSIBLY CHANGING ENTIRELY TO SLEET OR FREEZING RAIN FOR A BRIEF PERIOD OF TIME. AS THE STORM MOVES TO THE NORTHEAST LATE WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON AND COLDER AIR FLOWS BACK INTO THE AREA...THE PRECIPITATION WILL CHANGE BACK TO ALL SNOW BEFORE TAPERING OFF AND ENDING WEDNESDAY NIGHT. TOTAL SNOW AND SLEET ACCUMULATIONS BY THE TIME THE PRECIPITATION ENDS COULD RANGE FROM 8 TO 14 INCHES...WITH ABOUT A TENTH OF AN INCH OF ICE ACCRETION POSSIBLE DURING PERIODS OF FREEZING RAIN.

THERE CONTINUES TO BE SOME UNCERTAINTY AS TO THE EXACT TRACK OF THE LOW... WHICH WILL HAVE AN IMPACT ON PRECIPITATION TYPE AND SNOW AMOUNTS.

A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW... SLEET... AND ICE ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. STRONG WINDS ARE ALSO POSSIBLE. THIS WILL MAKE TRAVEL VERY HAZARDOUS OR IMPOSSIBLE.

Looks really bad, doesn't it? I have to admit ice is not my idea of a good time but snow really isn't an issue. The YaYa's Valentine's dinner maybe in jeopardy, however. We'll just have to wait and see.

~ ~ ~

Because deep inside of me lurks a seven year old boy.

12 Feet

The snow just won't stop. Intense lake-effect snow squalls that buried communities along eastern Lake Ontario for nine straight days diminished Sunday — then started up again early Monday.

According to the AP, nine days of snow squalls have dumped 12 feet of snow onto Redfield, New York.

12 Feet.

Look up. Most of us work and live in places with 12 foot ceilings.

That's a lot of freakin' snow.

"It's snow. We get a lot of it. So what?" said Allan Babcock, a lifelong resident who owns Shar's Country Diner, a popular eatery in this village of 650 people.

Hee! Love the attitude.

Really glad I don't live there! My parents and I lived in Gloversville, New York, between 1972 and 1975. I swear to the baby Jebus it started snowing in September and ended in May. It's a beautiful part of the world - especially if you love snow.

~ ~ ~

It's the 198th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth. It will be celebrated next Monday together with George Washington's birth in proper Merkin fashion - spending spree!

sigh

Other Lincoln sites include:

The White House - Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln Research Site

The History Place presents Abraham Lincoln

Happy Friday!

Hammies!

New York Hamster House

That site is too cute for words. They are, however, doing a huge service, so give'em some love (ahem... money) if you can.

Thankfully it doesn't happen often.

Sleepless night last night. My stomach was still a bit riled by the flu, even though I stuck with plain rice for the second day in a row. As I lay tossing and turning Scrooge's encounter with Marley leapt to mind at one point:

"Why do you doubt your senses?"

"Because," said Scrooge, "a little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There's more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!"

Instead of Ghosts showing up at appointed hours, I just rolled back and forth watching the clock ~

9:43

10:18

11:02

12:25

At some point I fell asleep and had one of those I have to get there dreams. Dreams tend to fall into two categories for me - impending death and fear of being late or missing an appointment. Last night I had to be someplace and the cat, Pewter, was doing something to make me late. I was in a frantic need to get him back... someplace. Then I'm in a motel room with a parking lot outside the door and I'm talking to someone I have to get him back before I can leave!, completely panic stricken. After crawling under cars and fretting because I was ruining my suit I finally got him and put him into the cat carrier.

Then I woke up. 3:11 am. Drenched in sweat and I felt like my heart was going to explode right out of my chest.

I'm don't know what triggered this dream. It's always when I'm under a great deal of stress that the panic or death dreams show up. My body's been under stress with the damn flu, but I'm not, so I'm at a loss to explain last night.

I didn't bother going trying to get back to sleep. I got up and stripped the bed and started doing laundry (ain't you glad you ain't my neighbor?) and then took a shower. It was now nearly 4 am and I'm casting about for something to do. I thought about going into the office and might have if it wasn't 10 degrees outside. Didn't feel like playing Xbox or computer games so I flipped on the television. 4 am. Infomercial Heaven.

I want whatever drugs these people are on. Have you ever watched these infomercials? These people have got to be high or insane because no sane, sober, person can be this happy. They're freaky and hypnotic, but by 6 am I had had enough and made my self some toast, boiled yet more rice (in chicken broth!) to take to work and left by 7 am.

My head will crash on the desk sometime around 1 pm today.

A HIGH of 24F

It's slightly warmer today and I'm feeling human again. If you end up with the stomach flu, you have my sympathies.

At the beginning of the year I sorted through boxes I hadn't unpacked since I moved in April of 2005. I figure, if you haven't looked at something in nearly two years it's time for the trash.

Very little has been trashed, however. I'm turning into a pack-rat.

One of the things I came across was my violin. I haven't played it since 2003. Raven, amazingly, remembers the violin. As soon as he saw the case last month he took off. Yeah, I'm that bad. I scare cats. I propped the case up next to my bed and he gives it a wide berth. The other two cats came into my life after I stopped playing so they haven't been traumatized. Yet. Yeah... I'm thinking of playing again. Just to screw with the cats, you see, not because I actually enjoy it. I haven't found the sheet music. It should have been in the same box as the violin. I'll have to buy some new music, or find some online.

Stop the World, I want to get off

It's Monday

And I'm in a really grumpy mood.

It's fuckin' freezing outside. I should have stayed home. I haven't been able to get warm all weekend. Probably because I spent most of it on the floor of the bathroom, heaving my guts out.

Flu, not hangover. Spent a large part of Saturday of hurling stuff out of orifi I didn't know I had.

You know why I don't believe in God? Because when you're so desperate to be relived of your suffering you actually start begging the Almighty you don't believe in to deliver you from the Hell you have found yourself in, and there is no response. Silence. Sweet Jesu, demonic laughter would be more reassuring. But no. Just more hurling and gagging and pondering who in your circle of family and friends are going to laugh when the Emergency Services report you were found dead on the bathroom floor covered in your own... offal. Then the mind starts to wander, to pondering how long you will be dead before anyone even notices. And... will the cats get so hungry they'll eat you and DNA tests will have to be done to determine that it really was you who died on that floor, next to the toilet, covered in puke and all?

Is orifi a word?

I managed to crawl to the couch late yesterday afternoon, dragging my comforter and a pillow behind me. I was quite the lovely sight. Can't imagine why there aren't hoards of men beating down my door, demanding to date me. Rats-nest of curly hair in a ponytail on top of my head - think Pebbles Flintstone, just way less cute. Pasty-faced, racoon-eyed. A tee-shirt with a sweatshirt over that. Flannel drawstring jammie bottoms which once belonged to some guy I dated who's name completely escapes me. Mis-matched tube socks; one blue, one white.

I curled into the fetal position on the couch trying to conserve heat and hit the remote. History channel was too much of a strain for my ick-infested brain. Bravo. Real Housewives of Orange County. If you haven't seen this train wreck, go watch it. Had I not been on Death's Doorstep I probably would have laughing my ass off at these stupid, pathetic women. Between the boob jobs and botox they have more toxic chemicals in them than Love Canal did. More money than brains and sadly they've all spawned beings just like themselves. One of these children has the potential of becoming a serial killer.

I drifted in and out of sleep during Criminal Intent and eventually crab-walked my way back into the bedroom. Three comforters and a flannel blanket and the heat up to 72 degrees and I was still cold! I even let the cats sleep with me for the extra heat they provided.

No, I lie. I just didn't have the strength to move them. They crashed on my body all weekend. Evil furbags. They knew I couldn't eject them and so they stuck to me like glue. At one point, kneeling on the floor next the toilet early Saturday morning, it dawned on me one of the cats was lying across my feet. Had I any strength I would have flushed that offending cat down the toilet!

Probably not. But I thought about it.

I woke up this morning feeling better. Tired, but better. Seriously considered fucking off work and then got in the shower anyway.

Yes, I am insane.

I may not last the entire day. Then again, I might. It's nice and warm in here and I don't want to go back outside. The Sun, it lies. It looks warm out there but it's really, really, really cold.

Happy Groundhog's Day

Did the rodent see his shadow? We've got flurries today, so I'm guessing our resident CT groundhog, whose name I never remember, isn't seeing his shadow and we've got six more weeks of winter on tap.

Surprised? No, me neither.

But that's not what I'm on about today. Today is about Valentine's Day.




I hate, loathe, despise Valentine's Day. Stupid, stupid day. People getting all worked up over not having someone. Or they get overly pseudohappy about the one they are with. Or being hyper over getting the "right" thing for/or from their "significant other" or spouse or whatever.

Gack!

Bah! Humbug!

I hate the colors red and pink. Stupid colors. I like greens and blues. Soft, soothing, mellow, comfy. Red is so harsh and bold and pink is just... well, icky. Reminds me of Pepto Bismol, which I need in massive quantities just to get through this phony romance season.




Stupid, stupid day. I Hate Valentine's Day.

Want to say I Love You? Then just fuckin' say it and spare me the fake schmaltz and fugly cards, okay?




Anyway...

The Ya Ya's are going out on Valentine's Day. I said I'll only go if I get to throw things, sharp and pointy things, at the Valentiners. The Ya Ya's think I have the wrong attitude about Valentine's Day -- I think it's the rest of the world with the wrong attitude, but, whatever. So, we're going to The Fat Cat Pie Company in SoNo. Google it. It looks like a fun place. I'll be the one throwing things at the snogging patrons.

I Hate Valentine's Day. I once had a guy tell me I was as romantic as athlete's foot. That's the nicest thing a guy's ever said to me.

No, not really. But I still like it.

Rest in Peace

Molly Ivins has passed away. She died from breast cancer at the age of 62.

"We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. Raise hell."

Too freakin' cute

Science Tuesday

Why do scientists ruin their important discoveries with stupid names?

That's a rhetorical question.

Hobbit Declared a New Species as Debate Continues.

The Hobbit. [insert eyeroll here]

Ever since the 18,000-year-old remains of the three-foot-tall adult female hominid were unearthed in 2003 on the remote Indonesian island of Flores, scientists have argued whether the specimen was a human with an abnormally small head or represents a new species in the human family tree. The diminutive creature had a brain approximately one-third the size of modern adult humans.

Some scientists named the specimen Homo floresiensis, a dwarfed offshoot of Homo erectus, a human ancestor that lived as far back as 1.8 million years ago.

I understand that scientists want to connect the general public to their discoveries or topics of interest... but the Hobbit?

My eyes hurt.

Anyway, more information is at Livescience.com.

~ ~ ~

Bad news: Hubble's primary camera shuts down.

Damn.

While other scientific work can still be done by the aging observatory, the unit that failed, the Advanced Camera for Surveys, is the one most scientists depend upon. NASA scientists say they expect to be able to restore just one-third of its observation ability, probably by mid-February.

"We're not optimistic at all" about returning it to full function, said Dave Leckrone, a senior scientist on the Hubble at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt.

Nightmare scenario

But only if we leave - no indication that he's screwed up and that it's time, not for more troops, but to get out and let the Arab nations and the United Nations take over. By the way, did you notice he's now saying we were maneuvered into a war we hadn't planned on? Gawd freakin' forbid he take responsibility for his own actions - always someone elses fault. He also stated that the Administration has a "diplomatic strategy" that is rallying the rest of the world to join us in the fight against terrorism (extremists). What freakin' planet is this jackass living on? Bush, they're running away from you, not towards. Except, of course, for your pet Poodle Blair and even he isn't snuggling up to you like he used to.

According to the Associated Press:

"CBS News poll conducted by Knowledge Networks immediately after the speech found that 82 percent of viewers generally approved of the president's proposals while 18 percent disapproved. However, 68 percent of viewers said Mr. Bush will not be able to accomplish his goals, while 32 percent think he will." The AP goes on to say that according to the poll, Bush "rallied some support for his Iraq plan among those who watched the speech." Before the State of the Union, "43 percent of them backed the plan, while 52 percent of them supported it after the speech."

I guess I'm in the 18 percent bracket.

Bush's speech highlighted, again, his lack of discernment and understanding of the terrorists and countries who don't agree with him. He sees the world as black and white, for or against, and it's just not that simple. His government is comprised of people who are either just like him or blindly follow his ignorant lead. While I don't support the radical Hezbollah tactics in Lebanon and elsewhere, the reality is that the Shia Hezbollah members of the Lebanese government were elected and should not be equated with al-Qaeda or the radical Hezbollah membership. His moronic statement: "second only to al-Qaeda in the American lives it has taken", referring to Hezbollah collectively, without differentiating between the factions within the Hezbollah organization itself, shows how little he knows or understands about the various factions in the Middle East. It's also a lie; Hezbollah was not repsonsible for the killing of Marines in Beirut in 1983 because they didn't come into being until 1984. Condi Rice is such a wonderful "historian" maybe she should explain this to the President. Use picture cards and small words Condi.

Anyway, back to the speech. I don't think, after six years of abuse, the Democrats are going to play ball with the President on either the domestic or foreign policies. The Democrats, hopefully, will just go their own way. Or even better, Ms. Pelosi, put impeachment on the table.


For more on the most recent outbreak of violence in Lebanon see:

Beirut burns as national strike explodes into sectarian violence

Lebanese viewpoints on strike

Warning of new Lebanon protests

Mideast press fears for Lebanon:

Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah and his supporters did what the Israelis failed to do with Lebanon. In fact, he even did more. He unmasked himself and revolted against his own country and countrymen. Nasrallah dragged - or almost dragged - Lebanon into a rebellion that could make it another version of Iraq.

~ ~ ~

Senator Webb's speech was, by far, better than the President's speech. Americablog has posted it, go read it. It was far more Presidental than Bush's speech, but I really hope he's not going to throw his hat into the already overcrowded 2008 ring.

Pron update

Since January 19 (or 19 January if you are from outside the US) there have been 221 visitors, but I'm not really sure how many of them are here for the pron. There have been new searches leading people to this blog, such as NYX BABY NAMES PRONUNCIATION and erotic stories panties bra thong sister law and www.heartbreakers.info (don't go there, not work safe... not safe anywhere).

Unknown is still #2 for the number of visitors who arrive here. Those of you from Unknown, please leave me a map of where Unknown is because it's really driving me crazy trying to figure out where you are. 17% of my visitors are from Unknown and I want to know where that it is. I can mentally picture the United Kingdom (4%), Germany (4%), Canada (4%), Norway (1%)... but Unknown has left me baffled. I pride myself on my Geographical prowess and not knowing where Unknown is, is a serious problem for me. Are you all from that region once listed on maps as hic sunt dracones? The Borgia Map has a location described as: Hic etiam homines magna cornua habentes longitudine quatuor pedum, et sunt etiam serpentes tante magnitudinis, ut unum bovem comedant integrum ~ is that you? If so, let me know, please. I'm also interested in communicating with dragons and if you have some I'd like to know.

Anyway... I can't give an accurate number for the pron searchers this week, but it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 190 still searching for variations of L l K and ending up here.

It's Eye Roll Day

Snow again last night, just a dusting, but schools were delayed. Why? Who knows.

~ ~ ~

And I thought the housing market in the Northeast was insane:

Tiny London apartment on sale for $335K.

But this is London and the 77-square-foot former storage room — slightly bigger than a prison cell and without electricity — is going for $335,000.

A coffin-sized shower is en suite, and storage is provided by a shallow closet and 10-inch-deep shelves cut into the wall. Two hot plates and a small sink make up the kitchen. Two dirty windows allow light to filter into the basement room, and the fire escape could conceivably double as a shared patio.

With no electricity or heating, Scott said it would cost an additional $59,000 to make the room habitable.

Makes Manhattan seem down-right cheap.

~ ~ ~

If you haven't heard new passport rules go into effect:

Americans flying to Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean made sure to bring their passports Monday because of a new rule going into effect Tuesday that requires them to show one to get back into the country.

Starting January of next year we'll need passports to drive or cruise outside of the US.

Winter has finally arrived.

We're not having any snow but it's gotten quite frigid in these parts. It's a normal January day for a change.

So Senator Clinton is 'In'. Who the heck isn't in the race for 2008? Just me and my cats?

The Idiot in Chief is going to talk to the Nation tomorrow night. Do I watch? I might have to get a perscription for tranks first. It's already out there that he's planning a tax increase. He's really gotten into pissing off the Republicans, hasn't he?

The death toll in Iraq is out of control -- the deficit in the US is out of control -- his approval rating is in the low 30's. According to an article in the Washington Post, only 26 percent of Americans polled believe the country is headed in the right direction; 71 percent believe the country is seriously off track -- the worst ratings in more than a decade.

So, what's he going to talk about? He's spent two weeks trying to rally public opinion in favor of his troop increase in Iraq and that hasn't worked. Is he going to talk about how he's made the country safer since 9/11? 55 percent of Americans already believe that he has not made the country safer. His waving the bloody flag of 9/11 yet again isn't going to help that. So, what's left? He's going to ask Congress to renew the No Child Left Behind law... because that's been such an amazing success. He's also going to discuss balancing the budget in five years - that must be the comdedy relief section.

Bit 'o trivia - the only President less popular than Bush on the eve of the State of the Union address was Richard Nixon, eight months before he resigned.

First snow

We've had our first snow of the 2006/2007 season. Just a dusting and it'll be gone soon.

~ ~ ~

Rebuke in Iran to Its President on Nuclear Role

In the hazy world of Iranian politics, such a public rebuke was seen as a sign that the supreme leader — who has final say on all matters of state — might no longer support the president as the public face of defiance to the West.

It is the first sign that Mr. Ahmadinejad has lost any degree of Ayatollah Khamenei’s confidence, a potentially damaging development for a president who has rallied his nation and defined his administration by declaring nuclear power Iran’s “inalienable right.”

It was unclear, however, whether this was merely an effort to improve Iran’s public image by lowering Mr. Ahmadinejad’s profile or was signaling a change in policy.

Surprising. I'm wondering, as everyone is, why the Ayatollah would be pulling back on Ahmadinejad's strings. Western opposition and objections have never dictated policy in the past... so why now? Something else, other than the UN resolution and losing economic stability (nothing to be sneered at but it's not a huge issue yet), is going on. It'll be a while before anyone figures out what the other issues are, I'm sure.

~ ~ ~

"The administration's reservoir of historical analogies seems limited to the 1914-1991 period. And it's all about Europe," said Adam Garfinkle, a former Rice speechwriter who edits the foreign-policy journal The American Interest. "No one in a senior position in this administration seems to have even the vaguest notion of modern Middle Eastern history."

That's surprising? How Rice Uses History Lessons is an interesting article in the WSJ. It's only available for today, unless you are a subscriber.

She tends to portray events, particularly the clash between what she calls "moderation" and "extremism" in the Middle East, as driven by huge, almost inevitable forces that make diplomacy impractical, or even irrelevant. Critics say such a view has made Washington's top diplomat less flexible in policy making -- and less adept in old-style negotiation and hand-holding, whose results also can be hard to quantify in the short term.

Those who clamor for sitting down with Syria and Iran are out of touch with what Ms. Rice calls "the underlying forces."

"There's a tendency to think about diplomacy as something that is done untethered to the conditions underlying it or the balance underlying it," she said. "In fact, that's not the way that it works. You aren't going to be successful as a diplomat if you don't understand the strategic context in which you are actually negotiating. It is not deal-making."

What I've believed all along is that a she's unsuited to the job because Security and Diplomacy require opposing mindsets. Can one be good at National Security and Diplomacy? Perhaps, but it was take an extremely well-rounded, well-educated and naturally diplomatic person to accomplish that. I don't think Rice is any of those things - hence, her inability to deal with the nightmare she had an huge hand in creating.

~ ~ ~

I wonder if anyone is listening.

Fed Chief warns of crisis over elderly entitlements:

"If early and meaningful action is not taken, the U S economy could be seriously weakened, with future generations bearing much of the cost," Bernanke said yesterday at a Senate Budget Committee hearing.

I've never believed in the US governments ability to provide for me in my old age. I don't believe any government should provide for its citizens from cradle to grave. Social Security distributions, when I'm in my 60's, if they materialize, will be for added savings or nice "extras" like travel - it's not going to support me. Anyone in my age group needs to wake up to the realization that our Social Security deductions are funding our parents retirement - that money will not be there for us in 30 years. If you're over 30, you better be socking away 25% of your gross income each year to live on when you are 65. Otherwise, you're screwed. That 50 inch HDTV with all the bells in whistles won't provide you with a roof over your head or food on your table 30 years from now. Make do with fewer latte's and vacations so you can survive your senior years in comfort instead of worry. Do you really want to be robbing Peter to pay Paul when you are 65? 70? It sucks enough now as it is, doesn't it?

[/end lecture]

~ ~ ~

Forgot the pron update. Since January 15th there have been 237 visitors. Of that number 214 have arrived here searching for variations of L l K.

Maybe I should contact these women and sell them some ad space here?

Stories like this make me wish I lived somewhere else.

According to Snopes, this is a true story.

Man pays $200 for 3 snowballs for daughters:

Chris Hansen, a firefighter from Milford, Conn., said he bought the snow for his daughters, ages 12, 14, and 16.

Fools and their money are soon parted. Why couldn't that fool be from Rhode Island or Vermont?

~ ~ ~

I didn't watch The Decider on 60 Mintues last night. I don't need the aggrivation. AMERICAblog covers it quite well.

My favorite quote from the show:

“Well, I strongly disagree with that, of course,” Bush says. “So I strongly reject that this administration hasn’t been straight with the American people. The minute we found out they didn’t have weapons of mass destruction, I was the first to say so.”

What? WHAT? When the hell did that happen?

Never, is the answer. Infuckingcredible.

If The Decider got paid by the lie we could pay down the debt load he's left us.

Impeachment still off the table Ms. Pelosi?

~ ~ ~

Ever since I posted the January 9th blog entry I've had the most amazing upsurge in visitors. 385 in less than a week, when most weeks barely pass 30. There are three little words to explain what is going on here. I'm not telling you what they are (you can guess) because I really don't want Google to continue to spider me when it goes out to search for those three little words. If you search those three little words you will find me at number three on the Google list.

For the most part this is funny, but I gotta wonder about people. The visitors are from Greece, North Korea, Japan, India, Turkey, Iran, Canada, several locations in the UK, Pakistan, Sweden, France, Spain, Italy and my all-time favorite, Unknown, with a whopping 129 visitors, which beats number three, Canada, with only 35 visitors. 49 countries in all. I love that I have an international "audience", but not so much for the topic, you know? I don't care what ya'll do in the privacy of your own home, but being associated with pron (mis-spelled on purpose) isn't exactly something that fills me with the warm and gigglies. And yet... it's very funny too.

So, international blog lurkers, come for the pron, stay for the insanity, okay? Oh, and post once in awhile. Just don't complain about the lack of pron here.

Remove the wrapper from the turkey before cooking

The US-Iran-Iraq-Israeli-Syrian War:

At a not-for-quotation pre-speech briefing on Jan. 10, George W. Bush and his top national security aides unnerved network anchors and other senior news executives with suggestions that a major confrontation with Iran is looming.

Commenting about the briefing on MSNBC after Bush's nationwide address, NBC's Washington bureau chief Tim Russert said "there's a strong sense in the upper echelons of the White House that Iran is going to surface relatively quickly as a major issue - in the country and the world - in a very acute way."

Russert and NBC anchor Brian Williams depicted this White House emphasis on Iran as the biggest surprise from the briefing as Bush stepped into the meeting to speak passionately about why he is determined to prevail in the Middle East.

"The President's inference was this: that an entire region would blow up from the inside, the core being Iraq, from the inside out," Williams said, paraphrasing Bush.

I watched this on MSNBC Wednesday night. While the men were serious and little freaked out by the briefing, I doubt it's had much impact on them. When the conversation got to this point:

MSNBC's Chris Matthews then interjected, "And it could be the rationale for going into Iran at some point."

Russert paused for a few seconds before responding, "It's going to be very interesting to watch that issue and we have to cover it very, very carefully and very exhaustively."

I laugh out loud. It was not a happy laugh. The 4th Estate has done a seriously piss-poor job for the past six years. I have no faith, no hope, in that changing.

So, Bush's actions and rhetoric over the past several weeks continue to mesh with a scenario for a wider regional war - a possibility that now mainstream journalists, such as Tim Russert, are beginning to take seriously.

Don't count on it Mr. Parry.

See the Professor's take on the attack of the US Embassy in Athens. And expect this to happen with more frequency folks.

~ ~ ~

There is hope for this sorry-assed country afterall: Bush's approval rating hits new low.

Public approval of Congress has edged up a bit now that Democrats are back in control, but it's still nothing to write home about. Approval for the way Congress is handling its job rose to 32 percent in the latest AP-Ipsos poll, up from a meager 27 percent a month earlier. That puts Congress on par with President Bush, whose 32 percent approval rating represents a new low for him in AP-Ipsos polling.

Will you put impeachment back on the table now, Ms. Pelosi?

Oh, and while you're at it, Ms. Pelosi, do something about this wonderful economy Mr. Bush has given us:

Study: 744,000 Are Homeless in US:

"In the last 12 to 18 months, the homeless population has essentially exploded in Philadelphia," said Marsha Cohen, executive director of the Homeless Advocacy Project, which provides free legal services to the homeless in Philadelphia. "We are seeing big increases in singles and families, both on the street and attempting to enter the homeless system."

"It's a whole influx of new people, and that's the really scary part," Cohen said.

Please take a look at Homeless & Crisis Assistance, at Charity.com; it's a list of charities which provide help to the homeless. Give if you can.


~ ~ ~

Alaska stargazers excited about comet:

NASA astronomer Tony Phillips says Comet McNaught is the brightest comet visible from Earth in 30 years. It is six times brighter than Hale-Bopp in 1997, and 100 times brighter than Halley's Comet when it appeared in 1986, Phillips told The Associated Press on Thursday.

"It will remain a spectacular comet for weeks, perhaps months, in the Southern Hemisphere," Phillips said. "It could emerge as the brightest comet in recorded history."

Cool! Actually, COLD! 40 degrees below zero. It's information like that that keeps in me in New England. One of these days I'll get to Alaska, just not in January.

I'm not a happy camper today.

I listened to Bush's speech last night. He threatened Iran and then we invaded the Iranian embassy in Iraq, in effect making good on this threat.

He's pursuing global war, in my opinion. I have zero faith in the Congress stopping him. He has issued over 700 signing statements to legislation passed by Congress which were sent to him to be signed, effectively changing the intent of Congress without anyone stopping him. He has stated that the Constitution is "just a goddamn piece of paper", proving, in my opinion, that he feels he may do whatever he damn well pleases. He will just sign us off into global war and Congress will do nothing.

See Informed Comment.



In other news, the other Senator from Connecticut, Christopher Dodd, has filed to run for President in 2008.

Dodd is chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic during the 1960s. He is a leading voice in the Senate on Latin American issues. He is also known for his work on health care and children's issues.

He is also an idiot. And yet, he could barbeque kittens and roll little old ladies for their Bingo money and this freakin' State would still send him to the Senate. The only good thing about Dodd is he isn't Lieberman.

Now for something completely useless

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Blessed Art Thou

The above painting is by Kate Kretz of North Carolina.

"My intention was to ask a question and get people to think," Kretz said in a telephone interview Friday from Miami. "I had no idea so many people would be asking a question and thinking."

On her blog, Kretz, 43, said the painting addresses "the celebrity worship cycle." She said she chose Jolie for the subject "because of her unavoidable presence in the media, the worldwide anticipation of her child, her 'unattainable' beauty and the good that she is doing in the world through her example, which adds another layer to the already complicated questions surrounding her status."

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God Denies Talking to Pat

It's all about freedom

Public service announcement: Gradatim Ferociter.

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Democrats eating their own will not help anyone: Ex-Dem. Party boss blasts Kerry in book. They need to come together with a cohesive strategy to fix the nightmare mess Bush has left this country in, instead of Monday-morning quarterbacking a campaign from three years ago. No one needs to read about Affleck and Paltrow making out a decade ago either.

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Extremism never works: Atheists challenge the religious right ~ and I'm all for that. But, as the article points out:

These offerings are so intolerant of religion of any kind - liberal, moderate, or fundamentalist - that some scientists and secularists have critiqued their peers for oversimplification and for a secular fundamentalism.

"They undermine their own case by writing in a language that suffers from many things they say are true of believers - intolerance, disrespect, extremism," says Alan Wolfe, a professor of religion at Boston College, who is a secularist and author of several books on American religious perspectives.

On the one hand you could say that Dawkins and Harris are only fighting fire with fire. But it will backfire on them. I think most people, theist or not, prefer a more moderate stance. Religious, dogmatic, people piss me off to no end, and I've ranted about it often enough. People of faith I can deal with because they usually have no agenda, no need to force me into their mold. The dogmatic atheists are no different from the fundamentalist religious - they are as determined to force the people to see the universe only from a rational point of view, just as the religious insist on the rest of us viewing the universe from a god-centered point of view. I, and I think many people, aren't going to listen to either side and will just be put off both messages.

Many nontheists don't share this militant perspective, but have decided that keeping silent in religious America no longer makes sense. They are astonished that a majority of Americans question evolution and support teaching intelligent design in the science classroom. They are distressed over polls that show that at least half of Americans are unwilling to vote for an atheist despite the Constitution's requirement that there be no religious test for public office. And they contend that in recent years, Congress has passed bills and the president has issued executive orders that have privileged religion in inappropriate and unconstitutional ways.

As a result, seven organizations of nontheists - including atheists, freethinkers, humanists, and agnostics - began the Secular Coalition for America (SCA), a lobby seeking to increase the visibility and respectability of nontheistic viewpoints in the United States.

Sadly SCA also stands for SCA, which is bound to confuse the hell out of everyone. Anyway, if they stick to their stance: "Still, the group makes clear on its website that while it promotes reason and science as the bases for policymaking, it also supports religious tolerance." they'll have my support.

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This is the internet as it is meant to be. How to go to M.I.T. for free.

"We believe strongly that education can be best advanced when knowledge is shared openly and freely," says Anne Margulies, executive director of the OCW program at MIT. "MIT is using the power of the Internet to give away all of the educational materials created here."

OCW

Space, the final frontier

From Monmouth County, New Jersey. This 'rock' crashed into someone's home on Tuesday night.

Police received a call Wednesday morning that the metal object had punched a hole in the roof of the single-family, two-story home, damaged tiles on a bathroom floor, and then bounced, sticking into a wall.

Yesterday it was announced that Saturn's Moon Titan a world of rivers and lakes. Sadly we can't go swimming in them.

Titan is the only moon in the solar system to have a dense atmosphere with thin layers of methane and nitrogen clouds--a setup similar to that of early Earth. Atmospheric methane is destroyed by sunlight over time and must constantly be renewed. Scientists thus speculated that lakes or even oceans of methane might exist on, or just beneath, the moon's icy surface and that evaporation from these liquid bodies was replenishing the atmosphere. The first confirmation of this thinking came last July when Cassini's radar spotted more than 75 large, dark patches around the surface of the moon's northern pole.

The Sky Is Falling!

God Told me of 'mass killing' in 2007

Ya'know... if an astrologer came out with such a statement, perhaps changing "stars" for "God", they'd be laughed at. Pat says God talks to him and nobody laughs or says he's crazy.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia (AP) -- Evangelical broadcaster Pat Robertson said Tuesday that God has told him that a terrorist attack on the United States would cause a "mass killing" late in 2007.

"I'm not necessarily saying it's going to be nuclear," he said during his news-and-talk television show "The 700 Club" on the Christian Broadcasting Network.

"The Lord didn't say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that."

Robertson said God told him about the impending tragedy during a recent prayer retreat.

God also said, he claims, that major cities and possibly millions of people will be affected by the attack, which should take place sometime after September.

Robertson suggested in January 2006 that God punished then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon with a stroke for ceding Israeli-controlled land to the Palestinians.

The broadcaster predicted in January 2004 that President Bush would easily win re-election.

Bush won 51 percent of the vote that fall, beating Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

In 2005, Robertson predicted that Bush would have victory after victory in his second term. He said Social Security reform proposals would be approved and Bush would nominate conservative judges to federal courts.

Lawmakers confirmed Bush's 2005 nominations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. But the president's Social Security initiative was stalled.

"I have a relatively good track record," he said. "Sometimes I miss."

In May, Robertson said God told him that storms and possibly a tsunami were to crash into America's coastline in 2006.

Even though the U.S. was not hit with a tsunami, Robertson on Tuesday cited last spring's heavy rains and flooding in New England as partly fulfilling the prediction.

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Bush has "written" an OpEd piece in the WSJ. He's still waving the bloody flag of 9/11 and still a complete moron. Go read it for yourself, if you've the stomach for it.

Iraq Civilian Deaths Hit New Record - Ministry