February 14th, 2004
Posted by fad at 10:54pm
Oh, and these are the only two Valentine's Day stories I have period, so you won't have to worry about me posting any more whines, at least on this topic, again.
Posted by fad at 1:36pm
(This was originally posted Feb. 13, so that explains any strange time references to today)
I don't want to leave with just that story below, so I'll tell one from last year. A couple friends and I decided to meet for some drinks after work. It just happened to be Feb. 14th, so it wasn't tied to the holiday. It was Friday, and we needed to get that weekend started. One guy's wife worked a late shift, so he didn't have anything to do. The other was on one of those two week breaks from her boyfriend, which, at least, is better than those pathetic break-up-to-make-ups that happen at 7pm and are resolved later that night or early the next morning. Repeat every few weeks. Remember, not being alone is far more important than your self-respect.
We agreed to meet at 7:00 at a place here in town with over a hundred beers in its selection. Well, so I thought. I arrived at 7:00, got a table, which was pure luck as the couples crowd was starting to fill the place. Unfortunately, everyone else thought we were meeting at 7:30.
So there I sat, clearly expecting someone who was clearly not showing up. The sympathetic stares started after about 15 minutes. "Oh, look. The poor ugly man has been stood up. How cruel. Let's stare at him." The waitress started offering me free bread and such things as I waited. It was really getting funny. Then it got really good. A couple there with their daughter, who had to be 8 or 9 years old, sent her over to invite me to sit with them so that I wouldn't have to be alone, which was very nice, but hilarious in what was assumed in that.
Finally at a little after 7:30 the first of my friends arrived. Just so happens she's rather attractive. You should have seen the stunned looks when she walked in and sat at my table. "Wait....he's not being stood up, and she's with him?" Which wasn't true either and added to the humor of it all.
The looks when the other guy showed up were a little more confused.
Posted by fad at 6:54am
(This was originally posted on Feb. 13, so that's why it keeps referring to today as tomorrow)
Ah, we're crashing in to another of the great "be with someone who generally makes you miserable but at least you can say you're not alone" days. It really seems that more words are wasted by everyone to dismiss Valentines Day every year. It's like how it seemed 75% of the chatter over the Half Time Floppy was the outrage over the outrage. I saw far more "move on it's nothing!" long essays than I did "This has combined Sodom and Gomorra into one great Somorra!" ones. As with those who always make sure to go on about dismissing tomorrow's holiday, in a very general sense, I've observed that they've spent not so many of them alone, but more in situations like the one described above.
Anyway, far be it from me to be different, so here are my wasted words. I, of course, have nothing going on tomorrow. In my life, I have only had a Valentine/girlfriend/date/whathaveyou for one of these things, not even one of those cheezy grade school/junior high ones. This was in college. Two days beforehand I was informed that I was to wear my suit, and we were having dinner with another couple at a fancy restaurant (well, as fancy as Mankato, MN can provide). This joint was one of those that gave you very small portions, and you paid for the pleasure of its company. $70 in fact, helpfully inflated by her wine orders. Now I've heard from many that an evening out usually costs even more than that. I don't know for sure not having been on an evening out like that since then. But please remember this is $70 just for a meal from a college bank account. That's a lot of cash. Then, when we got back from dinner, because she was drunk, all she wanted to do was detail all my shortcomings as a human being once again until she passed out.
So, yeah, I have nothing going on, but I know it could be far worse.
Posted by fad at 6:40am
February 13th, 2004
We are the mediocre presidents.
You won't find our faces on dollars or on cents.
There's Taylor, there's Tyler,
There's Fillmore and there's Hayes.
There's William Henry Harrison. "I died in 30 days!"
We are the adequate,
Forgettable,
Occasionally regrettable
Caretaker presidents
Of the U-S-A!!!!
Posted by fad at 5:21pm
Finally! Microsoft is going to fight popup ads!
The software giant said on Friday internal research showed customers were growing increasingly dissatisfied with the seemingly ubiquitous offers that appear in new windows when certain MSN Web sites are accessed.Huh. You know, maybe they should consider putting popup controlling options into their damn browser like others, such as Mozilla, have done.
As a result, the company will no longer sell such ad formats to advertisers. The ban goes into effect shortly for MSN's media properties in the United Kingdom, the Nordic countries and Belgium, extending to all territories in the coming months, the firm said.
Posted by fad at 2:59pm
Some things call for mob justice.
A phone call to Eddie Valentin saying that his wife, a U.S. Army Reserve sergeant, had been killed in an explosion in Iraq turned out to be untrue.I hoped I'd find a use for this pitchfork I've been heating over the fire. Didn't this happen to another family at least once already in the last year or so?
But it took him nearly 24 hours to find out that the report of Sgt. Betsy Valentin's death was false.
Posted by fad at 2:40pm
Your Friday purty piktur, Space edition.
Posted by fad at 2:10pm
Referrel log spam is quite the new blight on our time. I get quite a bit of it, and this site ain't popular in the least (about 15 unique visitors a day last I checked which was several weeks ago, I admit). It's always from IPs with AOL names associated with them, and always HEAD requests, not GET. Plus it has all been for Democratic candidates, John Kerry just now, or for the RIAA. I doubt right now that the campaigns themselves are paying for this (a few companies sell this as an advertising service now), but definitely someone sympathetic, maybe even the service itself. I am going to assume the RIAA actually ordered theirs, but I have no evidence.
Posted by fad at 1:46pm
Oh, sweet! Triumph The Insult Comic dog has pissed off Canada. Or at least Quebec.
Tim also mentions the reaction to the airing of the Australia episode of the Simpsons down there. About that time was when I first checked out the Simpsons usenet group, quickly to abandon it because those there proved there aren't many things more humorless than the fans of a comedy show, what with the impossible standards, the overintellectualizing and backpatting for being so clever as to like the show for very narrow, specific reasons.
Anyhoo, the Australians on the group were outraged, convinced that was exactly how most Americans thought of Australia. Kind of like how Brazil tried to sue over the Rio episode of a couple years ago.
Posted by fad at 1:34pm
Nothing beats a good, old fashioned infinite loop, eh?
Sheesh.
Posted by fad at 1:20pm
Oh boy! More Dianafication!
The two-hour documentary, titled "Princess Diana: The Secret Tapes," also will feature interviews with some of Diana's closest friends and confidants, NBC said.Just try to stop me from watching that!
[...]
Those recordings, about seven hours of taped responses to Morton's written questions, were secretly made in Kensington Palace in 1991 during a series of interviews conducted through an intermediary.
Please...someone? Anyone? I'll be your best friend.*
*Offer subject to terms which essentially render the offer null, and, in fact, end up with you owing me money.
Posted by fad at 1:15pm
Dr. Nick has some competition.
A man accused of posing as a doctor and injecting dozens of people with industrial-grade silicone was sentenced to five years in prison for practicing medicine without a license.Well if it's European, you know it has to be good.
[...]
Several people said they had gone to see Sanchez after word spread about a doctor who worked out of facial salons and had vials of a hard-to-find European lip-injection substance.
Posted by fad at 12:35pm
Just when we thought they were done, the overhead light wars have begun again! Hopefully we noble hearted and true who like them off will prevail this time.
Posted by fad at 12:34pm
Your tax dollars at work. Actually, that's pretty cool.
Posted by fad at 9:52am
I feel sorry for those losing their jobs, but anytime someone in the Pricess Di mawking industry takes a hit, I approach a level that could be called happy without ever reaching it.
The Franklin Mint, the company known for its eclectic range of pricey collectibles, from Scarlett O'Hara dolls to miniature John Deere tractors, has closed its 30 retail stores and its "museum."Though I had hoped they'd be around long enough to commemorate what I'm going to do in 2006.
Posted by fad at 9:09am
More evidence that the dastardly plottings of those commie pinkos which slowly turned into the dastardly plottings of corporate fascists is true.
While a little fluoride is good for teeth, exposure to too much of it — particularly at a young age when permanent teeth are forming — affects the enamel of the elks' teeth and makes them wear out faster, Garrott said. That accelerates the aging process and may even leave more adult elk susceptible to predation, especially by wolves, he said.They may only be testing this on the elk, but you know we're next. Once this is perfected, they'll unleash it on the population at large to create a slave army with prematurely bad teeth.
Posted by fad at 8:19am
I have to admit buying a piece of this history is tempting.
But Chicago's St. Valentine's Day Massacre -- at least 135 pieces of it -- is boxed up in a warehouse a couple thousand miles away, in Vancouver. Bricks from the garage, where seven of gangster Bugs Moran's guys were gunned down by Al Capone-connected killers, are the property of a 77-year-old former public relations man named George Patey.But not $800 tempting. I could probably recreate the event for less than that.*
They could be yours -- for 800 bucks each.
*Dear secret government domestic spies who are looking for any reason to toss us dangerous few on the internet into the camps, please realize I am kidding.
Posted by fad at 7:34am
Great. Now hosting an Olympics is going to be amped as a public health issue.
Researchers found suicides in Australia fell in the run-up to the Sydney games in September 2000, rising sharply after they had finished.Does that mean spending on the war can also be considered government spending on health care too?
[...]
Louise Morganstein, a researcher at the University of Birmingham who led the study, told BBC News Online: "One of the few factors that is known to reduce suicide rates is war.
"The decrease has been attributed to an atmosphere of national purpose.
"We were interested to see if a more positive event would have the same effect.
Posted by fad at 7:19am
Drop that yellow alert to green, my friends, Stamos returns to TV.
The Stamos project revolves around a guy on a date, with the show's entire season taking place over the course of the daylong outing.Yeah. I'm watching that. Sure.
Posted by fad at 7:11am
The posts which were here are not gone. I just decided to bench them until tomorrow.
Posted by fad at 6:27am
February 12th, 2004
When Bill Tuite heard that the new Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant in Muncie would serve beer and wine, he protested to the Delaware County Alcohol and Tobacco Commission.Thankfully he was stopped.
[...]
"Children can eat pizza and play games in a so-called family setting," the Alexandria resident said in an e-mail to The Star Press. "Now this establishment wants to serve beer and wine to adults. That changes the perspective on 'family.' "
Tuite was unable to persuade the local alcohol board, however, and the board approved the restaurant's beer and wine permit in a Thursday meeting.I imagine a lot of parents appreciate the chance to take the edge off a little in the midst of the screeching din.
"There was one gentleman that showed up to voice his opposition," said Sam Carson, a state excise police officer who serves on the local alcohol board. "I noted one of the criteria in approving or denying a permit is if the community desires or does not desire a permit location. He was the only individual present."
Posted by fad at 5:14pm
"Giant panda heads to new home in China"
When I first read that my brain took "heads" as a noun.
Posted by fad at 3:02pm
This is still probably better than rat's milk.
Cleaning fluid was accidentally packaged in cartons of fat-free milk sent to an elementary school, but a teacher noticed the odd taste and no students were hurt.Since we're talking fat-free milk (blue water as my dad calls it), I think it was more that the teacher actually noticed a taste period that was the clue.
Posted by fad at 1:54pm
I've served on a jury once in my life, even becoming foreperson (as it was by then called) just to prevent an overly eager dork (as opposed to my laidback dork stylings) from getting it. Now I can say I have something in common with Bo Jackson.
That's apparently why Jackson, without fuss or fanfare, was able to quietly spend two days this week serving as a juror on a DuPage County personal injury case.Say, Bo, what did you think of the jury experience?
"He said it was like watching pond water,'' the source said.He's got that right.
Posted by fad at 1:42pm
The blood has hit the water. Let the frenzy begin. This will be amusing for a few days. Well, in one of those annoying, not really amusing ways.
UPDATE: What the hell, let's spin some of the conspiracies. Since we know this couldn't be something that just happened, and we know that the timing of this breaking had to be timed, let's look at the possible dark plots and reasons.
- This (and I've seen this already) is happening so that with Dean's drop, Kerry can be destroyed so that Hillary! can step in and save the day.
- The Democrats appear to be running on a platform of shoving the world into 1997 all over again. Same tax rates; same foreign policy. If they just hold it at 1997, then all will be good again. And we don't have to worry about the world changing on us because it just won't do that this time. Well, I guess they felt they needed to add an intern story to confirm that all.
- This is all a Republican plot. When they can't kill their opponents, they go for this.
- Also, this plot is so sinister that it proves that the real reason Republicans have opposed human cloning is to cover up their own success at cloning Lee Atwater. Not even Karl Rove is evil enough for this.
- The Republicans injected interns into all the potential candidates' offices. Knowing that Democrats can't resist putting the "in" in "intern", the trap was set. Whether these were right-wing babes willing to take it for the team or cleverly designed sexbots (from the same lab that cloned Atwater) is the most interesting part of the story yet to be discovered.
I'd have more, but a mandatory group lunch is about to start.
Posted by fad at 11:07am
Continuing a theme others had, I have "Dust In The Wind" stuck in my head. The problem is, I don't know that song very well. So really, all I have is "...all we are is dust in the wind" looping in my head.
UPDATE: Please note, this is not an invitation to send me the lyrics.
Posted by fad at 9:18am
February 11th, 2004
Barbara Bennett wanted to sell her Brother brand sewing machine, so she bought a classified advertisement under "Miscellaneous" and "Items under $50" in The Columbian newspaper.And hilarity ensued.
Instead, the words "sewing machine" were accidentally dropped, leaving a "BROTHER" for sale ad.
One caller wanted to know if the price was negotiable. Another, upon hearing what was really for sale, said merely, "Thank you," and hung up.
Posted by fad at 5:35pm
Breaking, important news!
Sounds as though it's bye bye Bond for Pierce Brosnan. The actor reportedly has just learned that the producers of the 007 films will not pick up his option to cast him in what would have been his final outing as the enduring British spy.Hey, I'm looking to change jobs. I could do it. I look good in a tux.* Though it looks like they have some of their own ideas.
In addition to the long-standing names on the Brosnan successor list -- Jude Law, Christian Bale and Orlando Bloom -- insiders say Colin Farrell and Hugh Jackman are the current top prospects.Oh man, if they made Legolas into the new Bond there would be riots. That would be hilarious. Hell, I say they bring back George Lazenby.**
*That's a lie. I don't look good in anything.
**Actually I've seen maybe 5 or 6 of these movies, not the one he was in (Her Majesty's Secret Service, I think), and could take 'em or leave 'em.
Posted by fad at 3:45pm
Waitresses and communications majors of the world, your opportunity is at hand.
Organizers of the Lingerie Bowl, the Super Bowl halftime spectacular that had models and actresses playing tackle football in their skivvies, said the game proved such a success that they are going to form a league and a second Lingerie Bowl.Just what men love to watch. Hot women getting hit.
The four charter members include the Chicago Passion, Los Angeles Dream, New York Euphoria and Dallas DesireOk, "league" may be too strong of a word for this. I think we're about two years away from an organized, televised cat-fighting league.
[...]
Organizers said they would hold casting calls in the respective cities to recruit players.
Each team will consist of 13 models led by a celebrity quarterback and captain. The teams will square off in a single-elimination playoff game in January 2005. Los Angeles will take on Dallas and Chicago will take on New York.
The winners of each game will then play for the title (world's best lingerie football team) in a championship game to be shown again during the Super Bowl's halftime show.
UPDATE: Well, here's one solution for the uniforms.
Posted by fad at 12:01pm
Each individual state gets to set its own drinking age, legally drunk limit, driving laws, etc. Amazing how in many of those cases they are exactly the same. Wonder why.
The amendment to a proposed six-year $318 billion highway and mass transit bill would have taken away federal highway money from states that did not enact primary seat belt laws or which failed to reach a seat-belt use rate of 90 percent.Personally, I think laws such as that are a greater threat to civil liberties than anything in the Patriot Act. Once stopped, all sorts of other fun things and probable causes can pop up. Look how close it came to passing.
[...]
Primary seat belt laws, enacted in about 20 states, allow police officers to stop drivers whose only violation is failure to wear a seat belt.
It was defeated 56-42.So who sponsored it?
Sen. John Warner, R-Va., sponsor of the amendment with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., said that more than half the nearly 43,000 people killed in vehicle accidents in 2002 were not wearing seat belts.Notice how the amount shown using numbers is the total killed in accidents, but they don't use the numbers for those estimated to have not worn seat belts. That way you are far more impressed and may leave with an overestimated idea of the totals.
I wear my seatbelt all the time. I've been in a couple accidents where I know it saved my life. I believe it is foolish not to wear one, but I have to agree with these senators
"This approach is essentially federal blackmail by Congress," said Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo.Now if only more of them could give up this love of blackmailing for our own good.
"I believe threatening states with the loss of needed federal dollars for surface transportation is not the right approach," said Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
Posted by fad at 11:23am
Anyone else find it creepy to watch Muhammad Ali boxing his daughter in that one commercial?
Just more proof that technology has gone too far and should have been stopped in 1981.
Posted by fad at 10:12am
I was reminded of this trying to read Christopher Hitchens' op-ed at Opinion Journal. Since at least 1996, and likely late 1995, my fake email address has been slappy@squirrel.com (taken from the Animaniacs character). This is the address I use for any web site (such as Opinion Journal) or application (such as Real Audio) requires an email address, but actually receiving email from them isn't required for proper operation within acceptable parameters. Sorry, that sentence just started to get stupid and technical so needed to be taken all the way.
Anyway, as I said, I'd been using slappy@squirrel.com for years when, in late 1998, I moved to Redmond, WA, and got my first post-college job. One day I finally decided to see who the poor bastard was who owned squirrel.com and may have been getting all sorts of spam and bogus email trying to find the slappy@squirrel.com account. The WhoIs lookup showed that someone did indeed own that domain (no surprise there), but it was the address that was interesting. It was in Redmond, WA, as well. On the same block I worked, less than a quarter mile from where I was sitting at that moment.
There's really no point or purpose to this story; it's just something I always found a little funny. I still use that address as my fake, and, at least as of this morning, that same company still owns squirrel.com.
Posted by fad at 9:39am
So many tragic things in this story.
Luke Tresoglavic swam 300 meters (1,000 feet) to shore, walked to his car and drove to the local surf club with the 60 centimeter (23 inches) shark biting his leg and refusing to let go.So he pollutes the water with his presence, and then pollutes the air with his car.
The lifeguards flushed the shark's gills with fresh water, forcing it to loosen its grip on Tresoglavic's leg -- with blood oozing from 70 needle-like punctures. The shark later died.Then his actions kill a precious, innocent shark. Truly he should be ashamed.
Wobbegong sharks can grow up to 3 meters (9.84 feet) in length, possess razor-sharp teeth, and are said to be moody and short-tempered.There are so many jokes to be made with that factoid, but I'll just leave it at that.
Posted by fad at 9:02am
Creepy, Weirdo Democratic Candidate Unit #10 is out.
"General Clark has decided to leave the race," spokesman Matt Bennett told reporters in Memphis, Tennessee, on Tuesday night.Clark later added, "If I were president, I would have won this by now." Ok, he didn't. And that joke is only funny to me.
Posted by fad at 7:19am
I'm tired, used up Casablanca reference to read these allegations.
The Bank of France approached the Paris prosecutor's office after discovering that nearly $1.27 million were allegedly being transferred each month from Switzerland to Suha Arafat's accounts in Paris, where she lives, the officials said.I sure hope that money is honestly earned and not international aid being filtered away.
Posted by fad at 7:12am
Love and the internet, perfect for each other.
Posted by fad at 6:58am
February 10th, 2004
On Monday, the King County prosecutor's office made available 109 DVDs of interviews with Gary Ridgway, who was sentenced Dec. 18 to 48 life sentences without the chance of parole after earlier pleading guilty to killing 48 women in the Green River serial murder case.Only $2,220 plus tax and you could own it too
[...]
The disks, totaling almost 250 gigabytes of data, include more than 400 hours of video and nearly 8,500 pages of transcripts
[...]
The disks, which can only be viewed through a computer, also include video footage of field trips Ridgway took with detectives to sites where he dumped bodies.
And by posting this, I can expect a couple months of constant search hits from people looking for this video.
Posted by fad at 5:52pm
Pffft. Technology. Big deal.
The Spirit rover shattered a one-day distance record on Mars, rolling nearly 70 feet across the planet's rocky surface, NASA said Tuesday.I've moved 70 feet in a day dozens of times.
Posted by fad at 2:07pm
Here's a fine example of why you should never let your opposition explain your viewpoint. It's also a good example about how you can't expect the press, despite their continued statements that this is what they are all about, to approach things critically or objectively.
In a story about lower minority applications to the University of Michigan since the big Supreme Court battle of last year, we get this statement from the admissions director.
"The residual kinds of impact of all this discussion and dialogue, particularly from the other side of this issue, that diversity is bad, it makes a lot of students think, 'Well, maybe I don't want to be put into that sort of environment,'" Spencer said.See? Opposition to affirmative action, even talking about it, means you think "diversity is bad". I'm guessing that was true for some, shitheads abound in every movement, but it certainly was not an argument by any serious proponent or the majority of them. The dispatch just allows that charge to be made uncritically; it takes it as a given. Remember, while dissent is patriotic, diversity means not questioning things.
Posted by fad at 1:30pm
In the war against crime, few things are more useful than an eagle-eyed Wal*Mart employee.
James Cotton looked just like any other Wal-Mart customer buying a bolt cutter at 4:30 in the morning -- until the cashier noticed that Cotton was wearing handcuffs.He should have gotten some gum, too, so that it wouldn't be so obvious.
[...]
Cotton was caught minutes later Saturday, after he had gone into the bathroom and cut off the handcuffs.
Posted by fad at 1:14pm
This just in, politician changes behavior during campaign year.
The strip malls, mom-and-pop restaurants and big-box stores are usually just part of the blurred landscape President Bush sees from his limousine when he sweeps into town. For three years, he and his motorcade blew past it all.That evil, uncaring man daring to act like he doesn't want to blender up all those common folk into a slurry prized by the rich for its ability to enhance the look of caviar when viewed through a monocle.
But this election year, Bush has taken a sudden interest in the people and places in between the airport and his speech sites.
Monday marked the fourth time in 2 1/2 weeks in which Bush and the rest of his motorcade pulled over for a "spontaneous" visit with some local citizens.
Posted by fad at 10:45am
Since I plan to drink myself to death someday in a shack hidden away in Montana, I don't plan to make funeral arrangements for myself. But things could change, and it's always nice to know there are options.
Their method involves freeze-drying the corpse in liquid nitrogen.In other words they turn you into hippie dust.
Sound vibrations then shatter the brittle remains into a powder that can be "returned to the ecological cycle".
[...]
"Our ecological burial reduces environmental impact on some of our most important resources; our water, air and soil," she explains on her company website.
"At the same time it provides us with deeper insights regarding the ecological cycle, and greater understanding of and respect for life on earth."
After the freezing process, the odourless powdery remains are laid in a coffin made of corn starch and buried in a shallow grave.Finally, an edible coffin.
Ms Wiigh-Maesak says the soil "turns the coffin and its contents into compost in about six months" which means relatives can then plant a bush or tree on the spot.But don't forget to pause your Two Towers DVD first.
Posted by fad at 10:06am
Thinking...er..speaking...no, thinking of breasts.
Doctors may have found a way to use a combination of a woman's own fat and stem cells to make a natural breast implant, say Japanese researchers.I've always hoped we could find a more natural way to give a woman highly skewed breasts.
Plastic surgeon Adam Katz from the University of Virginia told Nature: "There's a good shot that this will work."Hot damn! Big tittied monkeys on the horizon!
He called for more animal trials before widespread use of the technique in human patients.
Posted by fad at 9:45am
Here's a follow up to that story about soldier's adopted dogs in Iraq. It includes a little more information for anyone who would like to help.
Laura Salter, director of the World Society, vouched for Military Mascot. Bonnie Buckley of Merrimac said she founded Military Mascot in June to help service personnel with pets they adopt overseas and, if possible, to help get them to the United States.I know nothing about either group so am just providing this stuff as information.
For more information, review the Web sites of the World Society at www.wspa-usa.org, and Military Mascots at www.adoptpaws.org/mascots.
Posted by fad at 9:08am
Ok. It has to be done.
"Scientists warned Pakistan about Khan"
KHAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNN!
UPDATE: Dammit! They went and changed the headline. Now this joke is as useless as the rest of me.
Posted by fad at 8:40am
There's nothing like a nice, cozy fire with your drinks.
Four young women, including a former employee, were sentenced for setting a fire that destroyed part of the Unidoor door manufacturing plant.No bets on whether or not staplers, "cake to employee ratio" or flair were discussed during that evening.
[...]
The women testified that they were drinking before they broke into the factory and started the blaze. Winkelmann, who worked at the company's door-jamb department, apparently wanted to vent anger at her employer, according to a court complaint.
Posted by fad at 7:19am
Why smart people should not be trusted.
A top high school student-athlete was ordered Monday to stand trial for allegedly committing a murder just to see if he could outsmart investigators.Poor little Raskolnikov done in by a woman. If you can't brag about a murder to an ex-girlfriend without her telling, then who can you trust? ....Not that I want to brag about anything. Nosirree!
[...]
According to a criminal complaint, Hirte allegedly boasted in a secretly taped phone conversation with an ex-girlfriend that he had killed Kopitske to "see if he could get away with it."
Posted by fad at 7:14am
Sell out.
The Whitehouse.com Web site, one of the best examples that the Internet isn't always what it seems, is getting out of the pornography business.That's it. I'm never listening to the internet again. It just lost all it's integrity. I feel like my youth has been whored out like common commerce. This is worse than when Metallica cut their hair. Well, that is if I ever gave a damn about Metallica.
Its owner says he's worried what his preschool-age son might think.
Posted by fad at 6:37am
Is this crushing of dissent?
But last week, subpoenas began arriving seeking details about the forum's sponsor — its leadership list, its annual reports, its office location — and the event itself.I wouldn't go that far, but it does give cause for those being investigated to make grand overstatements to that fact as well as allow New York Times reporter Monica Davey to give you that idea with the editorial bent of her article. So what are they investigating?
Mr. O'Meara, the prosecutor, said in his statement, "The narrow purpose and scope of that inquiry has been narrowed to determine whether there were any violations of federal law, or prior agreements to violate federal law, regarding unlawful entry onto military property — and specifically to include whether there were any violations as a result of an alleged attempt to enter within the fenced, secure perimeter at Camp Dodge."The feds want to know if at this forum they actively planned to trespass. Seems like way too much effort for such a thing. Yes, sure, terrorists, domestic and otherwise, could infiltrate such groups and do harm, but it is clear that wasn't the intent here. They were just the usual harassers. I fail to see why a federal grand jury needs to get involved.
But being the good dissenters they are, they need to bring up the buzzwords.
"I've heard of such a thing, but not since the 1950's, the McCarthy era," said David D. Cole, a Georgetown law professor. "It sends a very troubling message about government officials' attitudes toward basic liberties."Notice, no civil liberties have been as of yet even remotely violated, but McCarthy has to be brought up. This is not to say I agree with what the feds are doing here. In fact I find it pretty wasteful and stupid because of the press it gives to those who use perceived victimhood to give what may be false honor to their cause. This is, quite simply, idiocy on the part of this office.
"It was just another very mellow Iowa protest, so it's hard to know what this is all about," Ms. Vasquez said. "I guess it's meant to terrify the peace movement. I don't see what else they could be doing."I've often said that when an article closes with a quotation, that is the editorial position of the writer. Since it is the last thing in the article, it is what she wants you to believe.
Clearly this is a case of going to far, but it is not a full-on trend of crushing of dissent. Hell it isn't even a single case of dissent crushing since that hasn't happened. Yes, there will be a chill since many of those who are in these movements have a heavy paranoia as it is. You can't always allow for that when acting, but in this case the feds appear to be way overzealous. I have to say "appear to be" since the article is so clearly designed to be sympathetic to these people.
Posted by fad at 6:04am
February 9th, 2004
Posted by fad at 7:47pm
A good relationship is built on trust. Ok, more often fear which causes actions to enforce trust.
When a 40-year-old British woman set off a metal detector alarm at Athens airport, bemused security staff found that it was caused by a chastity belt she was wearing.They must be a lovely couple.
[...]
According to the press report, the woman told police officers her husband had forced her to put on the belt to make sure she had no extra-marital affair during a brief visit to Greece.
Posted by fad at 5:17pm
That's it. Shut it all down. That includes all the lights that keep flashing and blinking, and blinking and flashing. We're all doomed.
The age of oil is ending, he says. The supply will soon begin to decline, precipitating a global crisis. Even if we substitute coal and natural gas for some of the oil, we will start to run out of fossil fuels by the end of the century. ''And by the time we have burned up all that fuel,'' he writes, ''we may well have rendered the planet unfit for human life. Even if human life does go on, civilization as we know it will not survive.''At least they got the annual prediction of a global apocalypse due to running out of oil and other natural resources out of the way early this year.
To speed things along, I'll be mailing out packets of cyanide and kool-aid to everyone who emails me their address*. Remember, there is no hope. At least let me send you off in peace.
*By sending me your address you grant me power of attorney over your estate. What? I'll need your stuff to burn for warmth and cooking as the darkness descends. I'm not being greedy here. Ok, so I might dress some mannequins in your clothes and put on little traveling skits. Is that so wrong? Mankind will need entertainment as it falls into the abyss of chaos and anarchy.
Posted by fad at 3:06pm
Nice police work.
Wageningen police said a mobile telephone was stolen from a patrol car when agents were out dealing with a disturbance. An officer dialed the number and the phone went off in the pocket of a man nearby.Bad thief work.
Posted by fad at 2:06pm
Though things in Iraq are rough, it'd take effort to leave it worse than we left Haiti.
In the strongest challenge yet to the authority of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide (search), armed rebels began their assault Thursday in Gonaives (search), Haiti's fourth-largest city, setting the police station on fire, driving police officers out of the town and sending government workers fleeing for safety.Of course the cut-n-run crowd probably wouldn't care.
[...]
Crowds mutilated the corpses of three police officers, according to AP reporters. One body was dragged through the street as a man swung at it with a machete, and a woman cut off the officer's ear. Another policeman was lynched, and residents dropped large rocks on his body.
Posted by fad at 1:36pm
The stars at night!
Posted by fad at 1:24pm
Are big and bright!
Posted by fad at 1:23pm
(Clap-clap-clap)
UPDATE: (clap)
Posted by fad at 1:23pm
Deeeeep in the heeeaarrrrt of Texas!
Posted by fad at 1:23pm
The man most responsible for allowing any jerkass who can't seem to chew with their mouth shut ruin your movie going experience has died.
Rubin, known as "Sam the Popcorn Man," died Thursday in Boynton Beach, said his daughter, Karen Rubin.I wonder if he also came up with the idea to charge $5 for the jumbo bag (jumbo being the smallest).
He also developed movie-size candy bars and boxes, which could be sold for $1.50 instead of 35 cents, and sold liquor in Broadway theaters.Liquor at the theater? Now there's an idea! You could show your displeasure Blues Brothers style by whipping bottles around. I'd pay a nickel to see that.
Posted by fad at 1:01pm
If I can get more boring, please, let me know. I'm not sure how, after today's posts, I could get more so, but I'm willing to try just for you. Why? Because I care.
Posted by fad at 12:52pm
As noticed, I like free trade. What I'm not so sure about these days are free trade agreements which lower tariffs and the like, but require the agreeing countries to inact laws in line with the DMCA and other competition stifling regulations which may create unnecessary costs in the long run.
Posted by fad at 12:31pm
I'm not sure if Dick Gephardt endorsed Kerry just because he wanted to pick a winner, or because Missouri went so strongly for Kerry. Probably a bit of both. The thing is, Edwards is the protectionist torch bearer in this race.
Edwards spent about 20 minutes meeting privately with a couple of dozen workers who were losing their jobs at an air conditioning plant that United Technologies Corp. unit Carrier plans to close and move the 1,300 jobs to North Carolina, Texas and Mexico over the next 18 months.This has been Edwards' main thing. He goes to towns and plants that are, with no doubt, suffering due to these closings.
Protectionism is an understandable, if misguided, standpoint for a regional representative (House member, Senator, Governor, etc.), but it is not understandable for a President. Protecting, say, the South Carolina textile industry (a big Edwards thing), costs me money here in Missouri. It most likely will cost as many jobs all over the country due to the artificially high prices of textiles. The only difference is that the jobs lost from protectionism aren't as easily quantifiable because they are scattered. Lost jobs due to freer trade are much easier because they come with the obviousness of plant closings and such.
The same was true with Bush's incredibly cynical steel tariffs. They may have temporarily preserved jobs in a region, but they cost jobs and excess money to the rest of the nation. Preserving concentrated jobs through protectionism may buy a few votes in a region, but it seems a poor national policy.
Posted by fad at 12:27pm
This headline on the ABC News page would rank as the creepiest fetish spam in history if sent out.
"Curious About Nancy and Ronald Reagan’s Private Life? E-Mail Us"
Posted by fad at 10:48am
This article has the same picture the Post-Dispatch uses every time state Auditor Claire McCaskill is mentioned. You'd think someone in her office or campaign would be working to fix that.
Posted by fad at 10:14am
As a reminder, my birthday is just 4 short months away.
Posted by fad at 9:58am
I really don't believe that John Kerry has been corrupted or bought by being the #1 special interest money taker in the Senate. I just believe the man loves money. Which is an odd thing for a populist decrying the privilege of the rich.
Between 1985 and 1990, Kerry's first five years in the Senate from Massachusetts, he pocketed annual amounts slightly under the limits for speaking fees set by Congress. Unlike many colleagues, he donated a speaking fee to charity only once, according to annual financial disclosure reports reviewed by The Associated Press.Now here's the lame-ass defense from his staff.
The senator's campaign acknowledged Sunday that he accepted the speaking fees, but said he also gave several speeches a year for free.Why is that a lame defense? Because in the first block I quoted here, notice it says he "pocketed annual amounts slightly under the limits", so of course he did some for free because any more couldn't line his pockets.
In fact, giving speeches for free is almost worse at this point. The typical thing Senators do when they pass the limit is to donate that money to charity. That way, sure they're taking this money, but it isn't doing them any financial good at all, but it is perhaps doing real good elsewhere. For Kerry, once he got his cash, it was tough tits to everyone else.
Hey, maybe the man has changed, but I can't help but notice he's a very typical man of high ambition working the system for all it's worth. This isn't to say Bush is or isn't as well, but, c'mon, can we please put away this idiotic populist stuff for once?
Posted by fad at 7:41am
And now I present to you, a Monday ramble.
Maybe Edwards can create a miracle, but it is looking more and more clear that Kerry will be the man. A Kerry vs. Bush race is already doing it's best to make me want to tune out of the whole thing. Right now one of the fun things seems to be boomers wanting to snipe at each other over Vietnam yet again. As a man just short of 30 years old, I can't say forcefully enough how boring boomers revisiting the 60s and early 70s is to me especially since we have this whole here and now thing going at the moment. In college we were assigned to write a 10 Commandments for professors. One of my group's was "Thou Shalt Not Revisit The 60s Again."
It doesn't help that Kerry isn't really an option against terrorism right now. He doesn't just disagree with how the war is being fought, something I would find a useful debate, he disagrees that it is a war at all. Kerry has the typical, longtime in government, Democrat answer to how to fix a failed policy: Do exactly what we were doing, just more of it. That'll fix it right up.
Of course, thanks to the Republicans, we are getting a very nice, and very expensive object lesson on why appeasement never works. Republicans, so desperate to appear "compassionate" or not out to eat minority babies cooked in tobacco leaves under the flames of burning books, keep giving in to more liberal demands hoping they'll get a little credit and that Democrats will then also give in a little. However, there is no give in the take of the abusive relationship appeasement eventually turns in to.
There was no point to all this, nor will I claim any of it is right or thought out. As I said, it's just a ramble of the crap in me head this morning.
Posted by fad at 7:25am
February 8th, 2004
Posted by fad at 7:14pm
It's long established that Dave Winer is an overly typical arrogant internet geek. Yes, he's done all sorts of goody stuff, but he can't leave it alone. This is the man who claims to have been around so long that he blogged Franklin flying the kite so has the right to lecture everyone else on what a proper blog is. Today he makes the usual, boring mistakes longtime and dedicated internet f0lx0rs make: The assumption that they are the leading edge being kept down by the man or that everyone around is aware of and agrees with them just because they've assembled an online community.
Look, I'm not a long time internet-er, but I have been around since early '95. In '96 I co-ran a project (which had a very blog-like, daily updated news page) that got an average of 10,000 hits a week (to put that in context, please remember the size of the potential market of online people compared to today) with that many alone in a single day on release day. I once had to run an IRC channel with 400 active people in it when we were about to release a new version. Just a little over a year ago, a major political blog getting 10,000 hits in a day was mindblowing. Hell, 400 people a day was intense for some sites (and still is). Yet if I were to mention this project I bet almost no one would recognize the name.
The point is that blogs, forums, internet things, are indeed popular. But so much more of the US is not aware of these things. We see that more and more people are getting their information from the web, but that's their local paper, CNN, etc. It ain't blogs. As an example of online awareness versus most regular folk, I bet about 90% of people who read this have heard a variation of the phrase "all your base are belong to us". I'll also bet that if you went to the local Denny's that more than 90% of them would not have. Internet-heads can't get it through their heads that, as of now, internet memes are not culture-at-large memes.
The other classic, and most annoying, mistake of long time internet folk is their assumption that they are so unique in the history of man so that institutions act differently just because of them, mostly to keep them down. Unlike, you know, every other instance of progress in human history. Here's Winer:
I believe he would have survived the onslaught of CNN, ABC and NBC, who were his real competitors, not the other candidates for the Democratic nomination.Hey, Dave. The networks. Ok, let me state your lame coyness outright, the "corporate" media were not reacting to the blogging thing. They just didn't give a fuck. Get it? They aren't scared of blogs yet. The networks are still working on figuring out cable news which is decades old. And Cable news still isn't full penetration of information. About the only media nervous about blogs in any way is print media.
[...]
To Blitzer, Sawyer and Russert, to Viacom, GE, Time-Warner and Disney, Kerry seems safe, but Dean is dangerous, he routes around them, he goes direct. To accept his candidacy would be to accept the end of television-dominated politics. They aren't going to let this happen, any more than the record and movie companies are going to roll over for P2P distribution.
The media, in this case, followed the exact same template they have in just about every single race I've seen. The frontrunner who peaks too early, which is Dean (and despite your love of the man and saying he acted like a "human" rather than a "soapbox", please understand that even an internet genius such as yourself can be blinded by bias. Most people, fair or not, saw him as an angry freakazoid), the comeback from the dead, which is Kerry, and now the desperation for the race to continue for a bit longer, which is Edwards. We see these same things almost every year (Tsongas dripping into Clinton anyone? Heck, Perot?) Face it, Dean killed himself. Online presence is still nowhere close to critical mass. Even if Dean had run an online campaign within Dave Winer preferred and enlightened parameters, it still wouldn't have done it.
So, Dave, get over yourself. Yes, the internet is influential in a way, but it ain't a kingmaker yet. Hell, it isn't even a stale Cheerio used as a spare checker to king someone. It will be, probably. But it isn't yet. No corporate conspiracy doomed your candidate. In other words, the media wasn't trying to keep blogs and online stuff down; the media was merely acting like the media. Sorry if you didn't know this until now.
Oh, and while we're at it, Dave, could you make it so Weblogs.com doesn't break for 4 to 6 hours every weekday? Kind of hard to bypass the media when one of the major tools (yes, I grant him that much) of blogging is down nearly 25% of the day every day.
(Winer link found originally at Instapundit.)
Posted by fad at 3:56pm