November 28th, 2003
It was pretty damn good if I do say so myself. Though I was too full to eat the second one, so shamefully wasted it.
As to the other events of the day, I'm going to ignore most of the campaign and political reasons for the visits. At the end of it all, those visits weren't for you, me, a candidate's base or any of those. It was for those soldiers. As Vicky put it, "No acting President should be criticized for visiting his troops during wartime." For Mrs. Clinton's visit, forgetting all reasons she chose to go to Afghanistan, her visit brought attention to those troops who are too often forgotten in all the emotion over Iraq. That is most important.
And since it is the afterglow of a holiday, I'll ignore most of the sniping except for some of the media's. Some are crying about bad precedent of secrecy, or other media members holding out on them. Wah. They don't care about anything other than that they weren't chosen to get the story first. The trip had to be done in absolute secrecy for security reasons. Hell, Bush could have said, "No media except official Whitehouse photographers and transcripts", but he would have been damned even more for that. If the trip was going to happen at all, it had to happen the way it did. Those other media members would prefer nothing happen unless they are party to it. Sucks for them to find out when a President lands in Baghdad and not all the media is there to hear it, it still happens.
And now I'm going to enjoy a nice brisk day complete, for now, with flurries. Not enough to stick, but enough to look cool.
UPDATE: Oh, yeah. Fucking Packers.
Posted by fad at 11:16am
November 26th, 2003
Have a happy Thanksgiving and an enjoyable weekend.
Posted by fad at 4:10pm
Interesting idea.
Supermarkets in China's largest city will start charging shoppers for plastic bags next year in an attempt to reduce waste, a city environmental official and the official Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday.I hate when I have one or two items and the grocery tries to stick them in a bag. Then they get upset at me when I ask them to just hand me the items. Either that or they put two items per bag (they do all the bagging and get upset if you, the customer, try to). It's stupidly wasteful. Worse was when I lived in Kirkland, WA, the law required that all liquor and wine bottles had to be put in a paper bag. I'm not sure why. Is it all that more seemly to have someone walking around with a paper bag obviously hiding alcohol? Oh well. I'm babbling.
Posted by fad at 3:19pm
bugs
Don't like a bunch of chemicals on your plants? Think it makes mother earth weep? Don't like how it makes Gaia's soul dry up and her womb become a rocky place? Then check your produce carefully.At least three people found black widow spiders on bunches of red seedless grapes from California purchased recently at separate Shaw's supermarkets in suburbs west of Boston.Either that or choose raisins instead.
[...]
Grape growers and grocers say their efforts to use fewer or softer chemicals are to blame for more bugs reaching consumers.
Posted by fad at 2:50pm
Forget those dull, auto-pilot "busiest travel day EVAH!1!" stories every news service does. This is also one of the busiest pizza days.
While Super Bowl Sunday, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day and even Halloween stand out as somewhat obvious pizza days, the night before Thanksgiving ranks as one of the top five as well, those in the pizza business say.Of course every night is pizza night for me. Sure, it may cause me to die young, but at least I'll die young.
Posted by fad at 1:39pm
If you go to a county fair (or some lame, local amusement park there is often a petting zoo) they often have signs everywhere to wash your hands thoroughly after dealing with the animals so that you don't catch the e-coli invasion. Well, hand-washing may no longer be enough.
At least 19 people who had gone to a county fair in Ohio in 2001 fell ill with E. coli after the bacteria apparently spread through sawdust in the air at an exhibition hall - the first time researchers have connected an outbreak to a contaminated building.Fun! Luckily, I don't get near those places very often. So I'm in the clear, and that's all that matters. Me. That's right, numero uno, baby.
[...]
"This is an entirely new mode of transmission," said Dr. Michael S. Donnenberg, professor of medicine and head of infectious diseases at the University of Maryland, who was not involved in the study.
Posted by fad at 10:53am
Just heard a report passing by the tv that 5 people are being treated for exposure to an "unknown substance" in the New York subway system. Hopefully this will play out to be just some fumes or B.O. or something.
UPDATE: Well, maybe it didn't happen at all. I've seen absolutely nothing about this anywhere.
Posted by fad at 10:39am
Iran secretly develops nuclear program. UN gives them the frowning of a lifetime.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog's governing board Wednesday approved a resolution condemning Iran's secret nuclear program,They may even shake their fists at Iran.
sending what the agency's chief calls a "serious and ominous message" to Iran that future breaches "will not be tolerated.["]"Shake harder, boy!" The UN uses words like "serious" and "not...tolerated" and "consequences" a lot. I do not think it means what they think it means.
This post brought not by any original thought, but through the clever use of a pop-culture reference machine.
Posted by fad at 10:37am
I know you've all been dying for a Tori Spelling update, and FoxNews is there to provide.
Spelling, best known for her role as virginal Donna Martin on "Beverly Hills, 90210," will marry actor/playwright Charlie Shanian next year, her publicist said.Far be it from me to ever read anything into the amazing coincidences in between those behind a show and her being cast in it.
Spelling, in fact, is co-starring with Shanian in his play, "Maybe, Baby It's You" in L.A.
Posted by fad at 10:29am
They put up the Christm...er...Real Lights And Fake Evergreens For No Reason decorations here at work yesterday. Couldn't even wait until after Thanksgiving.
For further cheer, my group has a staff meeting in 20 minutes after which I shall either be (finally) fired, or, worse, entered into a secret Santa program. I'm really hoping for a none of the above.
UPDATE: Not fired; no secret Santa. One guy who's a little too dedicated to TEEM called in to the meeting from the airport in Denver where he is off for vacation because he couldn't bear to miss the meeting.
Posted by fad at 8:40am
When I see the name "Orrin Hatch" in a news story, I know it isn't going to be good.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (search) said Tuesday he had put one of his staffers on administrative leave for improperly obtaining data from the secure computer networks of two Democratic senators.Isn't Hatch one of the senators all keen to allow the entertainment or computer industry to do just that to see if people might have illegal software? Maybe that was just Hollings.
[...]
"I was shocked to learn that this may have occurred," Hatch said in a statement. "I am mortified that this improper, unethical and simply unacceptable breach of confidential files may have occurred on my watch."
Posted by fad at 7:37am
So I was too busy to get a turkey yet and will have to cook mine over the weekend. Big deal. I could always have this on Thursday as a fine substitute.
Posted by fad at 6:38am
November 25th, 2003
The news agency said Mohammed Hamdi al-Ahdal surrendered to security forces after they surrounded a home where he was hiding west of Sanaa, the capital of Yemen.He's one of the eleventy billion guys they say helped mastermind the USS Cole attack.
Posted by fad at 3:51pm
America's obesity crisis deepens.
A study of black bears in the Sierra Nevada has found that those animals that live in and around cities and towns are less active than those in wilderness, spending less of their time foraging for food and fewer days in their winter dens. These and other behavioral changes are making the bears heavier.So the solution would be to eat everything and not throw it away. Oh, but that would make us even fatter. So it's fatter people or fatter bears. What a horrible dilemma!
The culprit, say the study's authors, Dr. Jon Beckmann and Dr. Joel Berger of the Wildlife Conservation Society, is the garbage found at fast-food restaurants and in residential neighborhoods.
Posted by fad at 2:44pm
Remember stories like this next time one of these guys tries to explain the sanctity and glory of voting even when your side doesn't have a chance.
Kerry and Lieberman had canceled campaign appearances Sunday and Monday to support a filibuster of the bill, but after a pair of procedural votes Monday failed to stop it, both senators skipped the final vote. They said passage of the $395 billion measure was a foregone conclusion.Extra bonus of not being on the record for saying yay or nay.
[...]
"There was no question about the passage," said Kerry, who was stumping in Iowa on Tuesday. "The vote was not going to make a difference in the outcome."
Posted by fad at 2:04pm
State about to cut your budget? No problem!
The state treasurer pleaded guilty to official misconduct Tuesday for allegedly writing phony checks to protect her office from budget cuts. Gov. Mike Johanns called on her to resign.Nothing a little fraud can't fix.
[...]
Byrd was under investigation for writing $300,000 in checks Feb. 21 and keeping them in her vault before voiding them June 27, shortly after the Legislature ended its budget-cutting session.
Posted by fad at 2:01pm
There's hope for Madonna and all you other annoying anglophiles yet!
An American woman has been left with a British accent after having a stroke.Hmmm...maybe I should look into that. Chicks dig accents.
This is despite the fact that Tiffany Roberts, 61, has never been to Britain. Her accent is a mixture of English cockney and West Country.
Posted by fad at 10:28am
I was going to wrap up my long "I don't wanna vote for nobody!" series with a write up of my semi-annual screed against the Libertarian party and the smug, self-righteous people* who seem to drive it (from my experience), but my heart just isn't in it. Plus, as stated above, I've done it to death in my mind.
(*Typified by Nick Gillispie of Reason even though I don't think he's a member of that party. Many bloggers fall into this mode. You see them in comments to let you or someone else know how wrong they are, no matter the topic (politics, music, art, books). It always pains them to tell you that you are wrong, but they still find the proper condescending tone to tell you that you shouldn't like that song/movie or whatever. Yeah, they get in my craw, which is impressive since I'm not even sure I have a craw.)
Posted by fad at 9:29am
With more and more communities telling property owners they aren't allowed to allow smokers, I wonder how far we are from the next logical step. I expect within 5 years a community of some size will attempt to limit the number of drinks a place is allowed to serve to each person. I can see it now: Four drinks maximum in an evening, since five is the definition of binging. And you can only buy one every 45 minutes. I wonder if you can patent stupid government actions.
Posted by fad at 9:22am
Hey, cool. James Morrow wrote something up on National Review Online. Yes, something on NRO that isn't a long, boring tirade about marriage!
Posted by fad at 8:20am
When being sentenced after pleading guilty of trying to join the Taliban to fight against the United States, this will not gain sympathy.
Battle, a former Army reservist, also spoke of his obligations as a Muslim and concluded by singing a 10-minute song he had written in prison.Here's hoping that there was at least a bitchin' 5 minute guitar solo in there instead of 10 minutes of lyrics.
The courtroom was silent during the song, which ended with the stanza, "Free, free, free, for all humanity, release me."
Posted by fad at 6:40am
November 24th, 2003
I forgot that Ann Coulter is still out there.
Posted by fad at 5:48pm
Like the "Two Guys From Kabul" restaurant, sometimes I think Boeing wants to fail.
Boeing Co. fired its chief financial officer Monday for negotiating the hiring of a missile defense expert while she worked for the U.S. government and was in a position to influence Boeing contracts.Smooth.
[...]
Documents disclosed by the government revealed that Druyun, then the principal deputy assistant Air Force secretary for acquisition and management, told Boeing that rival Airbus had submitted a bid $5 million to $17 million less per plane than Boeing's offer. Druyun joined Boeing nine months later.
Posted by fad at 1:59pm
Just when the holidays couldn't get any more joyous, we get this news.
"A Carol Christmas," 7 p.m., Hallmark: Tori Spelling. Ghosts visit an egomaniacal talk show host on Christmas Eve. 2003 (Repeats at 9 p.m.)That's right, December 7th, Tori Spelling returns to basic cable! Truly this will be a holy day for fans of nepotism combined with obviously fake tits.
Posted by fad at 10:58am
To mock my concerns about how long it's taking to process the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, 20 were released recently bringing the total released to 88.
Senior officials at the Defense Department, in consultation with other U.S. government officials, determined that the 20 freed "either no longer posed a threat to U.S. security or no longer required detention," said a Pentagon statement Monday.20 more were brought in, so the number of prisoners remains static.
Posted by fad at 10:37am
stamps
Finally some important news: the 2004 commemorative stamps! Let's look at a few.-Pacific Coral Reef, sixth in the Nature of America series.Haven't we destroyed that stuff yet?
-Year of the Monkey, to mark the start of the Lunar New Year. Last of 12 designs in the series.Monkeys!
-Candy Heart, part of the Love stamp series started in 1973.Aww...chalky and nasty, just like love.
-Paul Robeson, actor, singer, civil rights activist and athlete, honored as part of the Black Heritage stamp series.Not to mention communist, Stalinist stooge, active in covering up the famines, active in covering up Soviet anti-Semitism for fear of harming the revolution.
-Theodor Seuss Geisel, stamp honoring Dr. Seuss on the 100th anniversary of his birth.You mean the "Cat In The Hat" movie isn't honor enough?
-Wilma Rudolph, stamp honoring the track star is part of the Distinguished American series.You'll get no argument from me.
-Henry Mancini, composer of "Pink Panther" theme "Moon River," "Days of Wine and Roses" and others.Don't forget his greatest work. The theme from "What's Happening".
-Lewis and Clark Booklet, special 32-page booklet with details of their expedition and two semi-jumbo stamp designs.May they be as successful as the Sacajewea dollars.
-Lewis and Clark Bicentennial, shows explorers looking out over countryside. Issued separately from booklet.
-Summer Olympic Games stamp, will be issued in August to coincide with the games in Athens, Greece.The glue for which will be a time release dosage of THB.
-R. Buckminster Fuller, to honor inventor, architect, engineer and philosopher.Going to be a lot of geek-squeal over that one.
-Cloudscapes, stamps featuring basic cloud formations.Aww..pretty!
-Holiday Ornaments, four stamps featuring painted glass Santa ornaments.At least there's no "Bright" stamp yet.
-Kwanzaa, stamp celebrating African American holiday.
-Hanukkah, stamp celebrating Jewish holiday.
Posted by fad at 10:08am
dems
So, having listed some of the reasons I don't want to vote for George Bush next year, it is time to look at the alternatives starting with the some of those running for the Democratic Party nomination. While Kucinich, Mosley-Braun, Edwards, and Sharpton are fun to discuss (well, except Edwards), they don't have a chance, so I'll be skipping over them. Also this will be a lot shorter since a lot of the general complaints, especially economically, about Bush apply here as well. Another reason is that it is harder to be detailed about assumed future acts based on presently proposed policies (mmmm...alliteration....).Lieberman
If forced to pick one of the Democrats running, I'd probably pick Lieberman. He's the only one of them who truly seems to understand the war in a way similar to how I see it. He also seems to genuinely be concerned about spending, though only in comparison to other candidates and the President. However, that still means all those concerns I mentioned about Bush's economic policies ("this will create x-bajillion jobs", "grow the economy", etc.) apply here as well. I just don't want to vote for someone who goes on like that. Another issue is, for all those convinced that George Bush wants to stop watching naughty things and hang a poster of Pat Robertson on your bedroom ceiling, remember that Joe has actively introduced and fought for "you shouldn't watch that because I think it's icky" legislation. I actually believe he is worse on those issues. The basic conclusion with Lieberman is: if I don't want to vote for George Bush, then I'm not going to vote for someone who looks an awful lot like him on a pro-con sheet.
Dean
Ah, Howard Dean. This will be quick. Sure, he goes on and on about fiscal conservatism and limiting spending. But then he goes and says that to do this also involves massive re-regulation of the economy. That has always worked out swell. So how fiscally conservative is it to retard economic activity to such a degree that it lowers tax revenue across the board? Following that path would lead to eventual tax increases which would further hold back economic activity. Foolishness. And while Dean does understand that once the Iraqi action was taken, we must see it through to the end lest we put ourselves in even greater danger, his willingness to cede defense and moral decisions to the UN and other bodies is a sign of a weak character to me. Either something is right or it is wrong. It doesn't matter what the UN says. Dean, prior to the war, repeatedly said that if the UN had agreed, then the action taken would be ok with him. However, since it did not agree, then it was wrong. And he didn't put it in a way that Saddam had to be removed or not. Dean's phrasing always made it that he didn't know if Saddam should be removed or not unless the UN informed him. I cannot vote for a person who does will not think and decide for himself.
Kerry
Please.
Clark
The primary reason I do not want to vote for this man is that the entire purpose of his candidacy appears to be little more than to affirm once and for all that Wesley Clark is the bestest! He has no ideas; he flips around more than anyone. His qualifications are his stars and his Rhodes scholar status. Sorry, doesn't fly. I don't care how smart you are if you still say stupid things and have stupid ideas. I know for elites who need reassurance of how elite they are, the fact that he is a Rhodes scholar matters more than the words he says, but doesn't fly for me as a Joe Dumbass who only has a BA in Tuition Check Clearing from Generic State U because he was too dumb to get into any other school. Yes, Clark may be a very intelligent man, but that intelligence is meaningless when, as with many intellectuals, it loses its tether to the realities of human nature. Awards and accolades are not reasons to vote for someone. Ideas are. He has none at this time other than vague "I like jobs. Don't you like jobs? Jobs are good." and such.
Gephardt
Protectionist. Pure and simple. Class warrior. Too old school; too slippery; too late. This is the shortest (well, second shortest) because everything I've already said applies to Gephardt, just more so. Can't vote for someone who embodies even stronger many of the reasons I don't want to vote for others.
[Last post on all this will be alternative party options.]
Posted by fad at 8:43am
NPR was on the radio (I don't control which station is on) on the way in this morning. They were, of course, doing their "we're better than you and by listening to us we make you better than everyone else; give us money" pleas. Which, I have to admit, takes some stones to do after getting a $200,000,000 grant from Joan Kroc's estate. Wonder how many homeless that could feed and shelter. Anyway, they phrased the plea this way, "If you depend on us for thoughtful, well-reasoned news."
My first thought was, once something is "well-reasoned", it's no longer news. It's opinion. The second was how they will probably need that $200,000,000 to help pay for all the injuries suffered during all the self-administered back-patting they give themselves. It reminds me of a lot of those bloggers who stress their education and intelligence to inform you that, while they may be saying the same thing as everyone else, it's more important when they do it. I guess being acknowledge for how swell you are trumps everything else in these circles.
Posted by fad at 7:32am
So on last night's sweeps episode of The Simpsons the family goes on a trip to England that includes meeting Tony Blair. This episode aired immediately after a highly publicized state visit by George Bush to England, largely due in response to Blair's actions in cooperation against terror. Coincidence? I sincerely doubt it. I'm afraid there is but one conclusion. Rupert Murdoch is behind al-Queda purely to drive up ratings.
At least I'm sort of surprised I haven't seen anyone try to make that argument yet.
Posted by fad at 6:51am
November 23rd, 2003
Posted by fad at 10:40am