To be able to say "Noggle," you first must be able to say "Nah."
In the 1980s, it was global cooling.
In the 1990s, it was global warming.
With a new decade laid before us, we should expect some new blight upon us, a pox brought upon humanity by technology and the rising standard of living around the world.
Oh, but no. The best they can do for the 2000s: global cooling caused by global warming.
Yawn.
(Link seen on Drudge.)
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Mrs. du Toit, whose retirement was shorter than an athlete who retires in his or her prime, concurs with my assertion that workers in danger of being outsourced should loosen up and make themselves more marketable.
Great minds, or at least the mind of a wanker and a du Toit, often, or at least once, move in tandem.
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Over at the Independent Women’s Forum, bad Charlotte takes issue with a piece in the New York Times Magazine that resins up the bow for the poor in America, particularly one woman whose tragic life story runs a gamut of poor decisions and short-sightedness. As it is in the New York Times Magazine, the author blames her miserable life on America, not on her miserable self.
As soon as Barbara “Nickel and Dime Bagged” Ehrenreich is back from her next indiscretion that could prevent her from getting a job at Wal-Mart, perhaps she could comment. Maybe we should hope she does not.
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Drudge links to a story in the News of the World about an eighteen-year-old British student who’s going to sell her virginity on eBay to pay for her schooling.
Let’s enumerate the sordid details, shall we?
“The government has made it difficult for people like me to follow their ambition to study.
“I wish we could concentrate on learning rather than constantly worrying about money or working to get by.
“I think Tony Blair and Charles Clarke are encouraging a class divide, which is wrong and goes against all of Labour’s principles.”
“I’m not willing to sacrifice my future for the sake of a part-time job, so I am faced with two choices—years in debt or prostituting myself on the internet for my education.”
British kids these days. Fortunately, we won both the revolution and the War of 1812, or these would be our future leaders and Socialist Policy setters. Our own are bad enough.
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Heather and I went to see the St. Louis Blues lose to the Dallas Stars this evening, and during the course of the evening I came up with some terms that I think should make their way into common hockey parlance. So please update your hockey lexicons to include the following:
Sports commentators, you don’t need to pay licensing fees for these terms. However, a mention of my name, Brian J. Noggle, would be nice, or a gift from my inexpensive Amazon wish list perhaps. Thank you, that is all.
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This story in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle indicates that men who drink more than fourteen drinks per week and women who drink more than seven drinks a week might be abusing alcohol. Is that really “abusing” alcohol?
Alcoholic beverages, such as delicious Guinness Draught, are designed for human consumption. Consuming them, and even consuming lots of them, is actually using them properly. Now, taking a couple bottles of Jack Daniels Old #7 Tennessee Sour Mash Whiskey, pouring them over a couple of derelict sofas, and lighting them on fire, that’s alcohol abuse. Whiskey is not supposed to be an accelerant in arson. It’s supposed to be a slight intoxicant.
On the other hand:
“I’m stunned by some of this information,” said Roxanne Klingensmith, a deacon at St. James Episcopal Church.
The deacon should ask herself, How often do I seek out information that stuns me? Information should educate or, well, inform; if it produces a physiological effect such as immobilization and if one frequently finds oneself stunned or seeking stunning information, one might well suffer from informationism and might abuse information.
(Link seen on Fark.)
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Tim Blair links to this remarkably in-depth recap retrospective on the Jennifer Lopez/Ben Affleck relationship which publicly lasted 18 months or at least two movie promo cycles.
Within it we find this job description:
One reason for the final demise of the relationship is said to be Jennifer’s desire to settle down and have a baby. Another, according to Us, was her chagrin at Ben’s partying ways.
My bachelor friends, if you would like to impregnate and perhaps share a house (and bed) for the long-term (two years? three years?) with Jennifer Lopez, send your resumes to:
or
Please include a photograph.
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The other white African-American links to a cautionary tale about a family that was a little different from the rest, and the felony prison sentences that resulted.
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Loyal reader AC loves when I waste his time with quizzes, so might I recommend this one:
 I amKung Fu Master. I like to be in control of myself. I dislike crowds, especially crowds |
(Recommended by my beautiful wife.)
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San Mateo, California, has made private karaoke booths illegal since people can do illegal things in public places where the public cannot hear you.
I’d like to point out that opaque walls are a greater danger, since people can do things behind those walls which the public and law enforcement officials cannot see, but I would hate to give them ideas.
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Apparently, the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority that was formed in 1989 to build a megolithic publicly-funded dome stadium to lure a football team is still in business, even though its job was completed in 1995. It’s paying six figures to its members, maintaining a luxury suite in the Trans World Edward Jones Dome, and setting itself up to be a gravy train for two more decades.
What, you mean the vaunted Civic Leaders are in it to feather their own nests at the expense of the taxpayers? I am shocked, shocked I tell you!
How long until Richard “Il Dick” Gephardt can join in now that his small-potatoes, low-paying political career is over?
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A bit of candor from a municipal official regarding property rights, that is, the municipalities right to revenue from property superceding an individual owner’s “rights”:
But until now, its attractiveness has not resulted in a use of the land that pleased Richmond Heights, said City Manager Michael Schoedel. Instead, the property had been home to a Steak ‘N Shake, Burger King, a gas station and other similar establishments.
“The Galleria is clearly our bread and butter, and we wanted something across the street that would support it,” Schoedel said.
If the owner preferred to use the land for a Steak ‘N Shake, Burger King, a gas station, and other similar establishments? Who cares what the owner wants? Property rights come from the State’s pleasure.
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Neil Steinberg’s back to two columns a week in the Chicago Sun-Times. His new Wednesday column, though, is a collection of short pieces about various subjects…..
Add a couple links, put it on the Web, and it’s a blog!
Come on, Neil. You know we want ya ta.
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Professor Reynolds has the word about people who claim that Bush’s Mars program is all about sending Haliburton to Mars to look for oil.
Honey, if Haliburton finds oil on Mars, there are far greater things to worry about than the rich getting richer.
Such as:
How will the discovery of freaking life, albeit dead and decomposed, on another planet impact the Religious Right’s support of Bush?
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One of them damn venture capitalists explains why CEOs fail.
Build your own checklist, and mark it up for your CEO!
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Andy Kessler writes in OpinionJournal.com that one can self-publish a book and succeed.
Maybe we won’t be residing this year after all, honey.
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In this FoxNews.com story, we find (under the heading of “Now, Honey, Do as I Say, Not as I Do”) another example of clever prosecutorial layering:
The 10-minute pursuit Friday morning ended outside Del Mar Pines School with the arrest of Stacy L. Taylor for investigation of evading arrest and child endangerment.
Got that? Child Endangerment. Mother runs off from a ticketing officer, and suddenly she’s under the stormcloud of a nebulous criminal charge.
Any moving violation can now become child endangerment. Speeding? Rolling through a stop? What if someone were to be coming the other way? The Children might have been endangered!
I think this post makes me guilty of conspiracy of child endangerment or perhaps incitement of child endangerment.
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Unfortunately, I score highly on:
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Kim du Toit is all over a story in the Seattle Workers’ Revolution story about Bill Gates buying properties surrounding his home and letting friends and family members live there. In some cases, the original owners are still there, living in Bill Gates’s house.
And this accumulation of property by a capitalist must be stopped, or so the story implies.
But let’s get to the point of the knife. The municipal government’s worried about its money:
If other residents follow Gates’ lead, that could present some challenges for the city of 3,000, said Medina City Manager Doug Schulze. Much of the money the city gets from the state is based on population. If people buy up surrounding houses and don’t have people living in them, the city’s share of state funding might decline, he said.
Ah, yes. Lest we forget, the government has a right to revenue from property owners. Or so it’s assuming.
That’s why your house is worth less to your local government than a dozen empty parking spaces in a Wal-Mart parking lot, and why this local government is beginning to make noise about preventing a man from acquiring property legally. For the neighborhood, and undoubtedly for the Children.
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It sounds like a Dr. Who episode, all right, but it’s not. Ozguru probably should have called his post Revenge of the Architects for all the damage the vice presidents of technology and software architecture do.
Oh, how we know how you feel.
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