To be able to say "Noggle," you first must be able to say "Nah."
Jeez, how can a man work with all this disruption?
I guess that’s why I wasn’t working when this photo was taken at 6:30 pm one night this week.
Buy My Books!
Ladies and gentlemen, watch what the authorities do to child molestors, because they will eventually take those same measures with other offenders.
Because the crimes are so repellent, citizens will accept these measures and parents will clamor for them. But as the first item shows, once these rights are abrogated to protect the children, law makers and law enforcement officials will use those mechanisms to persecute other criminals who might commit the same crime in the future.
Sure, Westchester County only wants sex offenders to wear a bracelet; but sex offenders can take those off. Countdown to mandatory microchipping has begun.
Buy My Books!
O’Connor Dismisses Ado Over Int’l Law:
O’Connor, a Reagan appointee, participated in a lively one-hour discussion at the National Archives with Justices Antonin Scalia and Stephen G. Breyer. She said if there is no controlling U.S. precedent or the viewpoint of states is unsettled, “of course we look at foreign law.”
“This is much ado about nothing,” she said in response to a question by moderator Tim Russert of NBC. “Our Constitution is one that evolves. What’s the best way to know? State legislatures — but it doesn’t hurt to know what other countries are doing.”
Our constitution has a mechanism in it for evolution. It’s the amendment process.
Any other evolution, a la reading the penumbras, emanations, and secret codes inherent in interpreting the rights derived from reading the third letter after every punctuation mark isn’t constitutional evolution. It’s judicial creationism.
(Link seen on Althouse.)
Buy My Books!
I bought a pair of Levi’s 404 jeans, but now I can’t find them.
Buy My Books!
600 foreign software developers on a former cruise ship in international waters outside of Los Angeles. It’s Sea Code.
Buy My Books!
More women’s bodies protected by security cameras:
A San Francisco police officer is facing possible disciplinary action for allegedly using surveillance cameras at San Francisco International Airport to ogle women as they walked through the terminal, according to San Francisco Police Commission documents.
Oddly enough, he’s in the most trouble because apparently it wasn’t his turn at the cameras:
Police share the surveillance system with several agencies. When the Police Department traffic substation is controlling a camera, none of the other agencies is able to use that camera, the charging documents note.
Rossi allegedly spent a total of three hours manipulating six of the cameras.
He ignored coworkers’ warnings that he should not be using the cameras, saying “he did not care since he was not assigned to the substation he would not get in trouble,” according to the charging documents.
Buy My Books!
Ben Affleck demonstrates the relative worth of Jennifer Garner vs Jennifer Lopez:
Affleck bought Garner a $500,000, 4.5-carat Harry Winston engagement ring — as compared to the 6.1-carat pink diamond ring from Winston which Affleck got for his former fiancée Jennifer Lopez.
Nothing says “I love you” like giving the second Jennifer a ring that’s 73% of the one given to Jennifer I.
Buy My Books!
Here’s a feel-good story with a happy ending:
At first, Charles Kulage suspected a buddy was playing a joke by calling to verify his address and then saying his $4,296 federal tax refund check had been found at St. Peters’ recycling center.
But it wasn’t a joke. While sorting paper, a worker at the recycling center spotted the check Monday and saved it from destruction.
A happy ending until you consider how much attention workers pay to papers in the recycling bin.
This message brought to you by someone too paranoid for a shredder.
Buy My Books!
When you’re testing and you see a dog breed called Dogo Argentino, you might think that you’re seeing junk data since the Spanish word for Dog is perro.
But it’s not; there really is a breed called Dogo Argentino.
Probably junk data that became institutionalized through repetition.
Buy My Books!
Senator Barbara Boxer of California has found another right which compels someone to act according to another person’s will:
Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, citing reports that pharmacists have turned away women seeking birth control pills, has introduced legislation that she says would protect American women’s access to contraception.
Boxer’s proposal would require all pharmacies to fill all prescriptions or refer customers to someone who will, despite pharmacists’ religious or ethical objections to the nature of the prescription.
Securing the right to birth control, you see.
Hey, Babbles, I got some other ideas for your brand of Federalism which is far too crashing, snorting, and bellowing to call “creeping Federalism”:
Senator Babbles wants to inject the Federal Government virus into every small business in the land to protect the helpless against those who own property and want to use it as they see fit.
Buy My Books!
I inherited this book from my aunt, whose legacy filled my to-read shelves with horror and mystery novels. I’m growing to enjoy Stephen King and Dean Koontz, so their presence in my library is welcome. Stephen King is an American master, truly, whose books will be read hundreds of years in the future assuming 1) people still read books, and 2) all American texts have not been burned.
First of all, this book is a book without antecedent. Not precedent, but antecedent. When I tried talking about it with my beautiful wife during our evening rambles around the subdivisions in our neighborhood, she couldn’t always understand what I was talking about when I referred to It. So I had to say Stephen King’s It, like I was titling the miniseries and hoping the name Stephen King would draw viewers which the title alone would not.
The book is not without its flaws. This comes from King’s Epic period, which spawned The Stand and the beginning of the mercifully-split Dark Tower series. This book weighs in at over 1100 pages, and I hit the AKM (Anna Karenina Moment, wherein the reader realizes he’s read enough to have completed one long novel and realizes that he’s got the equivalent of one or more novels to go–and is tempted to read one or more complete novels instead). The quality of the writing doesn’t suffer, really, but the quantity tends to overwhelm it.
The book deals with seven youths who confront an eldritch, foetid horror in Derry, Maine, in 1958, and when the eldritch, foetid, other-worldly horror resurfaces in 1985, the middle-aged children of Derry return to confront it again without the imagination of youth to protect them from unreality.
I survived the AKM and pressed on. King weaves a lot of detail into the setting, and even the minor characters take on three and sometimes three-and-a-half dimensions. Still, this adds bulk that wouldn’t be afforded to a first-time novelist; agents and editors would bounce this proposal back from anyone but Stephen King. The main characters get their own sections and chapters and great detail. However, I’m not a first time King reader, so I was reading along trying to guess who wouldn’t make it. Life, and King, are cruel that way; just when you get to liking someone, a monster rises from the depths and rips off his or her head.
Still, somewhere after page five hundred pages, the pace picks up and rushes toward a hundred page climax and forty page dénouement. Overall, I’m pleased with the book and even have the strange desire to see the 1990 television movie equivalent which features Tim Curry as Pennywise the Clown–that man has actorial chutzpah.
Still, one has to wonder what Stephen King was thinking when he concocted the plot. Did he say to himself, what this book really needs to drive its theme home is group sex in the sewers among eleven and twelve year olds? Because I could have entirely left that little bit out without really corrupting the story.
Buy My Books!
FanC a d8? Never fear, text messaging is here:
Welcome to (INSERT TECHNOLOGY), the newest, easiest way to show someone you’re interested. Simply (INSERT TECHNOLOGY USE). No more love letters, no more “baby, what’s your sign?” and best of all, no more face-to-face rejection.
“It’s such an easy way to break the ice,” Holstack said. “Approaching girls in a bar can be so intimidating and this takes the approach part out of the equation. The worst reaction I could have gotten was her not replying and I’ll take that over her laughing in my face any day.”
Holstack, it seems, is not alone. With more than 30 million registered (INSERT TECHNOLOGY) users sending more than 30 billion (INSERT TECHNOLOGY) each month, it’s clear that romance seekers like (INSERT TECHNOLOGY USER) will not be without a date for long. More than 50,000 people are registered for (INSERT TECHNOLOGY) in Missouri, with 8,800 in the St. Louis area alone, suggesting that many people are beginning to realize that their (INSERT DEVICE) can also be the key to a successful dating life.
Let’s try some of these combinations from the past:
Hey, I got a precognition!
Welcome to Cranial Bluetooth Implants, the newest, easiest way to show someone you’re interested. Simply pass by the attractive member of the desired gender identity. No more love letters, no more “baby, what’s your sign?” and best of all, no more face-to-face rejection.
“It’s such an easy way to break the ice,” Holstack said. “Approaching girls in a bar can be so intimidating and this takes the approach part out of the equation. The worst reaction I could have gotten was her not replying and I’ll take that over her laughing in my face any day.”
Holstack, it seems, is not alone. With more than 350 million registered government-mandated implantees sending more than 30 billion Bluetooth thought transmissions each month, it’s clear that romance seekers like 19897267 will not be without a date for long. More than 350,000,000 people are registered for tracking in the United States, with 800 remaining residents in the St. Louis area alone, suggesting that many people are beginning to realize that their proper thoughts can also be the key to a successful dating life.
Every generation rediscovers the uses of current technology in dating, and it’s always the hippest thing about which to write.
Buy My Books!
Ladies and gentlemen, I want a new organization. I want People for Ethical Treatment By Animals. Because I don’t think it’s right that people are treated this way by animals:
74-year-old animal lover was found dead in her home after what police believe was a brutal attack by the woman’s two mixed-breed dogs.
Animals shouldn’t treat people this way. Join us next week when we splash some red paint on a chow to protest that breed’s tendency to bite off the hand that feeds it.
Buy My Books!
US sent banned corn to Europe for four years:
All imports of United States corn have been stopped at British ports following the discovery that the US has been illegally exporting a banned GM maize to Europe for the past four years.
It’s all part of the long-term Bush plan to alter the genetics of Europeans using genetically-modified corn to make Europeans lazy and unself-determined and to suppress their sex drives, yielding a lower birth rate so that Europe has to rely on radical, non-integrating Islamic immigrants for population stability. Ultimately, the Bush administration wants to generate a rationale for the Second Crusades which will begin in twenty years when Empress Barbara I invades Europe to liberate the Cradle of the Enlightenment from the Heathen.
That’s why the United States, as a nation and a single entity, shipped genetically modified corn to Europe. Those who think it might have been a single company’s error swallowed in the bureacracy are simplistic and lack the imagination for proper conspiracy-mongering.
Buy My Books!
The TSA won’t comment on the specifics of the reports until they are released, spokesman Mark Hatfield Jr. said.
But, he said: “When the political posturing is over, rational people will see that American screeners today are the best we have ever had and that they are limited only by current technology and security procedures that are significantly influenced by privacy demands.”
Handy thumbnail translation for those of you outside of the government:
“We need more money and less oversight to increase our productivity.”
Buy My Books!
Three quick hitz from the last week’s Shepherd Express, which we picked up in Milwaukee but didn’t actually use to find activities downtown:
Five months after the election of George W. Bush on Nov. 2, 2004, something still doesn’t add up.
Although the election results have been accepted by the majority of the country, a nonpartisan group of university-affiliated statisticians and other experts found that something may have gone very, very wrong—so wrong that the wrong man may be sitting in the White House.
This group, USCountVotes, looked at the exit poll results taken throughout Election Day by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International. The exit polls indicated that Democratic nominee John Kerry would win by 3% of the popular vote. Nevertheless, George W. Bush officially won the national popular vote by 2.5%. This type of discrepancy is the largest to ever occur in a presidential election. Exit polls are conducted with those who have just voted—they are not a sampling of “probable” or “eligible” voters before the election.
Five months after the election and a non-partisan but named group has analyzed the exit polls and determined John Kerry won the presidency. If only we could get the damn constitution and its means for determining the presidency out of the way. What’s next for these people? In 2000, they wanted to selectively recount ballots from only certain areas; in 2004, they want to use exit polls instead of ballot counts. What’s next for 2008? I’m less than eager to find out.
How much, if at all, was newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst to blame for the shocking fate that overtook the brilliant young Hollywood actress Dorothy Comingore?
The author then spends two pages recounting what happened to Comingore, but the only evidence presented against Hearst is that she starred in Citizen Kane and that Hearst was rich and powerful. Ergo, or Ogre as the case may be, Hearst was behind it all. Because that’s the only reason it could have happened.
You have to wonder—five years out, will any expression that a right-wing administration and its blogosphere enforcers object to be considered acceptable?
I would bust Berkmann’s kneecaps, digitally and metaphorically of course, were he worthy of the attention. Because columnists among real papers know they’re inconsequential in 2005 unless the blogosphere either loves them or hates them. But Mr. Berkmann, I don’t think of you.
Since 2000, a large number of publications have become largely unreadable, with every article and column somehow bemoaning the controlling force of the Administration in Washington. Harper’s, Time, The Shepherd Express….
Funny how these sorts of publication laud more intrusion from the Federal government in daily lives, whether through free health care that will determine who gets what care, to regulation that makes it harder for new pharmaceutical products that will help many come to market because it will harm a few, to what words the FCC will ban from television (whether it’s racial epithets that are banned or swear words). Unfortunately, its the growth of this encroachment that makes the occupant of the White House too damn important for daily life and for overemotionalism in daily, weekly, and monthly publications.
Buy My Books!
When white bread isn’t offensive enough, we have the following:
Buy My Books!
Here in Missouri, we’re not blessed with sharks, so the media needs to latch onto slightly more, um, mundane trends to carry it through the summer.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has seized upon just such a pattern of natural disaster with its second story in two days about marauding birds. Today’s entry: Boy feels the effect of goose nesting season:
Five-year-old Chase Standefer wanted to get a fishing lesson but instead got schooled about another type of wildlife.
As he set foot on tiny Jolie Isle in Lake Saint Louis on Sunday afternoon with his stepfather, Robert Price, a nesting goose attacked the boy, causing a small but deep gash on his scalp.
I cannot wait for the in-depth local television news investigating if the birds around your house will attack you.
(First story about bird attacks here.)
Buy My Books!
AOL is a funny animal. Hey, I’ll admit I first got onto the Internet using AOL and that I still use AOL (I’m a Web application tester, gentle reader, so I use more browsers and operatings systems on any given day than you’ll probably use in a year). But come on, some of their things are just funny.
Let’s start with this scenario. You know how AOL always warns you that no one from AOL will ever ask for your credit card information, your password, and so on? Well, if your credit card information changes (such as a new expiration date), what does AOL do?
Of course! It throws up a prompt for you to enter credit card information:
Why, oh why, would AOL expect its users to type their information into a prompt like this? Because they’re AOL customers, that’s why!
Back in the dial-up days of the mid nineteen nineties, AOL had trouble getting enough lines at its access numbers to accommodate the surging demand. Some people were leaving their computers connected when they weren’t at the computer, tying up those precious lines. So AOL deployed the Idle Message, a message that popped up for every user fifty minutes after the user logged in; if the user didn’t click OK to indicate they were still using the computer, AOL booted them. Many times, it kicked me off in the middle of a download. Handy.
Apparently, AOL’s gotten more sophisticated and has set the message to determine when the user is not doing something. I assume such because it’s called the Idle Message. I’ve never seen it, but I have seen this:
That’s right, since I have apparently turned off the Idle Message in my AOL for Broadband connection, AOL still pops up a message box to indicate I have been idle. The titlebar? Idle Message Off.
I think that AOL is trying to use paradoxes and irony to cause a rift in the space-time continuum so it can reach through to an alternate universe where its merger with Time-Warner was a good idea. It’s only a working theory, though, and I might be wrong.
Buy My Books!
As he explains:
…there is rising anger among Republican activists and donors with the perceived dithering on judges in the Senate. It has been five months since the sweeping wins of November and three months since the Senate convened. But only one of the filibustered appeals court nominees has even cleared committee –a second might do so today– and despite Majority Leader Frist’s repeated declarations that he has the votes to end the filibuster, no clear schedule has been laid out that details when that vote will occur, and the MSM is doing its best to raise doubts about the reliability of Senator Frist’s 50 votes. Reports of compromise discussions and senators’ worries over “tradition” have become a staple of the political press.
The result is that the GOP is in real danger of alienating a significant slice of its activist base –a base that has gladly contributed to the campaigns of new senators John Thune, Saxby Chambliss, Jim Talent, John Cornyn, John Sununu, Norm Coleman, Lindsey Graham, Jim DeMint, Mel Martinez, Richard Burr, David Vitter, and Tom Coburn because it understood the need to add Republicans if the body was going to work. They gave to the individual campaigns and to the Senate Republican National Committee, and thousands volunteered long hours throughout the last two cycles.
Hewitt pooh-poohed the thought of the Republicans losing support because of substantive issues such as fiscal irresponsibility, excessive FCC fines and, coming soon, jail time for minor infractions of “decency,” McCain-Feingold, Sarbannes-Oaxley, Medicare prescriptions, whistling past the Social Security graveyard, or any of the other hubristic party-in-power lapses.
No, in Hewitt’s view, what is leading to this crackup is essentially a procedural matter in government. Whereas the non-rank-and-files Hewitt wouldn’t be sad to see leave the Republicans worried about the content of the party’s convenant with the country, Hewitt’s worried about a particular comma in the fourth paragraph.
Buy My Books!