07

1. 2004-07-01t21:11:06Z. RE: Animals. Bush. Cars. Cyber Life. Faith. Food. Iraq. Money. Movies. Programming. Science. Sex. Spider-Man. US. WarCraft. World.
2. Shopping for a Gorget. RE: Martial Arts. Gorget. Armor.
3. 2004-07-14t15:39:06Z. RE: Animations/Videos. Anyone But Bush. Comic Art. Computers. Cyber Life. Family Values. Food. Faith. Fun. Games. Green. Healthcare. Housing. Images. Interesting. Iraq. Local. Martial Arts. Media. Money. Politics. Programming. Robots. Science. Sex. Show Biz. Travel. US. US Elections. World. Writing.
4. 2004-07-20t15:33:27Z. RE: Anyone But Bush. Comic Art. Computers. Cyber Life. Design. Faith. Family Values. Fun. Games. Green. Healthcare. Images. Interesting. Iran. Iraq. Local. Martial Arts. Media. Money. Programming. Science. Sex. Showbiz. US. US Elections. Web. World. Writing.
5. 2004-07-25t14:46:24Z. RE: Anyone But Bush. Computers. Engineering. Family Values. Fasting. Food. Games. Green. Healthcare. Humanity. Images. Iraq. Local. Martial Arts. Media. Money. Music. Science. Sex. US. US Elections. Words. World.
6. 2004-07-28t16:20:29Z. RE: aaBlog. Animation, Video. Computers. Cyber Life. Engineering. Games. Humanity. Images. Local. Movies. Programming. Sex. Show Biz. US Elections. Web. Words. World.

2004-07-01t21:11:06Z | RE: Animals. Bush. Cars. Cyber Life. Faith. Food. Iraq. Money. Movies. Programming. Science. Sex. Spider-Man. US. WarCraft. World.
2004-07-01t21:11:06Z

Animals

• Man Rescues Ducks. Just a guy doing a good deed. And it wasn't PhotoShop edited.
  

Bush

• Deserter: The Story Of George W. Bush After He Quit The Texas Air National Guard
  • 'An examination of the Bush military files within the context of US Statutory Law, Department of Defense regulations, and Air Force policies and procedures of that era lead to a single conclusion: George W. Bush was considered a deserter by the United States Air Force.'
  • The story of Bush's personal military history will not die because it is outrageous.
• Der Furor: Bush plays the Nazi card. Classy, very classy... NOT!

Cars

• Too many cars, too few digits: U.S. will run out of vehicle ID numbers
  • 'The 17-digit codes that identify the origin, make, model and attributes of cars, trucks, buses -- even trailers -- worldwide will be exhausted by the end of the decade.'
  • ' Unlike telephone companies, which simply created new area codes to cope with a surge in households, cell phones and fax machines, the committee is not recommending longer VINs -- even though 18- or 19-character codes would not repeat for 100 years. Longer codes would require a major overhaul of computer systems that would dwarf the challenges and expenses spawned by the Y2K computer dilemma, said Dave Proefke, chairman of the committee.'
    • Lazy bastards!

Cyber Life

• Malware attacks IE users via pop-ups [2004-06-30]
  • ' The malware, which has been identified by the SANS Institute, is delivered to users' PCs through pop-up windows that appear when users log on to financial portals. It seems that the suspect pop-ups are delivered on certain websites that run ads from third-party ad servers, which appear to have been hacked. When the pop-ups appear, vulnerable versions of Internet Explorer begin downloading a malicious file that records activity - such as passwords - onto the infected PC and sends that data to a server reportedly located in Estonia. '
    • OK. I guess I'll switch to Mozilla for few days until they get things patched.
  • Related:
    • US Government warns against Internet Explorer: Internet Exploder will harm your machine
      • 'The US government has sent out a warning out to internet users through its Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), pleading users to stop using Microsoft's Internet Explorer.'
• AskTheTechGirl.com.
  • ' If you like super sexy girls with superior tech skills, you are in luck. "Ask The Tech Girl" gives you the rare opportunity to talk live to a super smart, sometimes snarky and always ready tech girl, geek chick or network ops cutie. '
  • Ha ha! For under-sexed geeks only. Their site needs some work though.

Faith

• Keep Your Jesus off My Penis: The Video. Nothing graphic but the words are strong. It's basically about "hypoChristianity".
• Churchgoers Get Direction From Bush Campaign. 'The Bush-Cheney reelection campaign has sent a detailed plan of action to religious volunteers across the country asking them to turn over church directories to the campaign, distribute issue guides in their churches and persuade their pastors to hold voter registration drives.'

Food

• Artificial Sweetener May Disrupt Body's Ability To Count Calories, According To New Study. Ha! Good thing I avoid artificial sweeteners as much as possible. It's either real ice cream or I'll skip it.

Iraq

• Iraq looks good through rose-colored glasses
  • ' When the founders included language empowering the government to "promote the general welfare," they were not speaking that generally. They meant the welfare of Americans and Americans alone. Bush, however, thinks he has just as much power to spend money and do good things in Baghdad as in Baltimore. But what else can he say? Every other pretext for the invasion has disintegrated like a sand castle in a thunderstorm. So he and his aides fall back on insisting that the Iraqi public and everyone else are better off with Saddam Hussein in jail instead of in power. '
  • ' In the months before we attacked, the administration promised the achievement would be huge and the expense minimal. Besides reaping the adulation of Iraqis, we would cow rogue dictators, curb terrorism, promote democracy in the Middle East and pave the way for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

    Instead, North Korea and Iran are pushing forward with nuclear weapons programs. Terrorists are more numerous than sand fleas in Iraq, not to mention Saudi Arabia. Instead of offering a human rights model to Arab nations, we've given them pictures of naked men being tortured by Americans. The Israeli-Palestinian lovefest has yet to commence.

    Our failure to reap these side benefits would be excusable if the war had served another constitutional mandate: providing for the common defense. But there was no significant threat from Saddam Hussein. We had prevented him from aggressing against anyone for more than a decade. We had forced him to accept extensive UN weapons inspections that bound him hand and foot. The administration had persuaded the UN to adopt a new system of "smart sanctions" to constrain him without punishing his people. '

  • ' A lot of people across the political spectrum have had second thoughts. Laments Michael Ignatieff, director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University, "Someone like me who supported the war on human rights grounds has nowhere to hide." Legendary conservative commentator William F. Buckley Jr. says, "If I knew then what I know now about what kind of situation we would be in, I would have opposed the war." Most Americans now say the war was a mistake and didn't make us safer. '
• Saddam defies Iraqi tribunal
  • He sure is entertaining.
  • ' "I am Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq," he repeated, before quizzing the unnamed young judge about his authority. '
  • ' "This is all a theatre," Saddam said with a half-smile. "The real criminal is Bush." '
  • ' "They should put Saddam in a cage and send him around the world in a travelling zoo so everyone can see the monster as he is," said Baghdad shopkeeper Samir Majid. '

Money

• Fed Raises Interest Rate a Quarter Point: Federal Reserve Raises Interest Rates to 1.25 Percent, First Increase in Four Years
  • Bottom lines: Fed 1.25%, Prime 4.25%, 30 year mort 6.25%.
  • 'The Fed's decision triggered a one-quarter percentage point increase in commercial banks' prime lending rate, which also had not risen in four years. This benchmark borrowing rate for millions of consumer and business loans rose from 4 percent, the lowest since 1959, to 4.25 percent.'
  • 'Many economists are looking for the Fed to keep increasing the funds rate until it hits around 4 percent. At that level, analysts said, the Fed would view the rate as neither stimulating extra growth nor acting as a drag on growth.'
  • 'The nationwide average for 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages reached a low this year of 5.38 percent in mid-March, but was at 6.25 percent last week, according to the mortgage company Freddie Mac. Sung Won Sohn, chief economist at Wells Fargo in Minneapolis, said he looked for 30-year mortgages to climb to 6.5 percent to 6.75 percent by year's end and probably level off slightly above 7 percent next year. Still low by historical standards, that would compare with the four-decade low of 5.21 percent in June 2003.''
• Budget Impasse Reflects GOP Schism: Tax Cutters in Standoff With Advocates of Fiscal Restraint
  • 'A deep rift in the Republican Party has left Congress unable to pass a budget this year, raising the probability that, for the third time in three decades, lawmakers will not agree on a detailed blueprint for government spending and tax policy.'
  • Oh these confused Republicans. The can't do financial math (big spending/deficits/military AND big tax cuts don't mix). Nor can they do social policy (libertarian freedom AND a theocracy doesn't mix).

Movies

• IRrobotMovie.com [Release Date 2004-07-16]. Oh man! I had forgotten that the I, Robot movie is set in Chicago of the future! I see from the trailer that the Sears Tower is still up. I wonder if they'll have a Daley as the mayor?

Programming

• Mono 1.0 Released [2004-06-30]
  • About time. Let's see what this open source version of the .NET framework can do.
  • Is it coincidence that the beta version of Visual Studio 2005 (codenamed "Whidbey") was released just yesterday? The conspiracist in me tells me that Mono is really a Microsoft trojan horse for busting up Linux and open source.
  • Related:
    • Mono-Project.com
    • Slashdot thread

Science

• Evolve - A Student Project in Mechatronics in Collaboration with Volvo Cars and video. In other words they've invented the "self-parking car"! Another fine use of Linux.
• IEEE-Virtual-Museum.org. See the how electrical engineers have revolutionized our lives over the years.

Sex

• Reading Teacher Booked: Woman, 23, busted for "encounters" with boy, 14. I'm not sure why I'm posting this link other than that I didn't have a post in the "sex" category yet.

Spider-Man

• Spider-Man's Rogues Gallery of Villains
  • Cool!
  • 'Arguably the greatest assortment of bad-guys in comic history, and here I have an alphabetical listing of their Images with a brief description of each...For each villain, their name, alter ego, team affiliation, powers, & appearances in Spider-Man Comics are given. '
• Some Spider-Man comic strips all twisted up [NSFW]. Funny shit!
  
• 3 Dev Adam loosely translates to "3 mighty men" or "Captain America and Santo (the Mexican wrestler) vs. Spider-Man.". This link cannot be explained --it can only be experienced.
  

US

• Supreme Court to Decide Medical Marijuana Case. All right dude!
• Bid for information on lobbyists denied
  • 'The Bush administration is offering a novel reason for denying a Freedom of Information Act request seeking the Justice Department's database on foreign lobbyists: Copying the information would bring down the computer system.'
    • BWA-HA-HA!! This administration is such a joke! It's insulting. They come up with such crap and yet so much of it gets by. Maybe I should stop blaming the administration and start calling Americans sheep again.
  • ' "This was a new one on us. We weren't aware there were databases that could be destroyed just by copying them," Bob Williams of the Center for Public Integrity said yesterday. The watchdog group in Washington, D.C., made the request in January. He said the group expects to appeal the Justice Department's decision.'
    • BWA-HA-HA!! Stop it! My ribs are hurting.
  • ' The government said that an overhaul of the system should be finished by December and that copies should be available then. '
    • BWA-HA-HA!! Another thing that won't be ready until right after the election.
• Interview With Jon Stewart on CNN Larry King Live [transcript]
  • Stewart on Clinton:
    • ' STEWART: I think he's an incredibly charismatic and certainly bright man. I think there's always, no matter when you listen to him you are engaged and repulsed. Engaged in that sense of you brilliant smart man who could have done so much, zip it up. ... You get angry because it's, you are so -- so needing of that inspiration and that leadership and that mind and that intelligence and so angry that it would be wasted on such a trifle thing.'
  • On entering Iraq:
    • ' STEWART: Well, I established my war cabinet, you know, years ago when we talk about this sort of thing. You know, there have been four justifications that I've heard so far for the war and you tell me if I'm wrong about this. There was the weapons of mass destruction. There was the ties to al Qaeda. There was the oppressed his own people. And there was one other in there somewhere. Weapons of mass destruction, ties to al Qaeda, possible nuclear. OK.

      KING: Support terrorism.

      STEWART: That describes like five countries. So if that is the standard that we've set to go into a war, shouldn't we also be...

      KING: North Korea.

      STEWART: Iran, Sudan, aren't they all doing the exact same thing and have maybe closer ties to al Qaeda, even?

      KING: How do you know they're not next? '

  • On Cheney cursing Senator Leahy:
    • ' STEWART: I think it's probably the nicest, perhaps conversation that a Republican and a Democrat have had in Capitol Hill for quite some time.

      KING: He told him to go blank himself.

      STEWART: Yes. KING: That's encouraging to you?

      STEWART: I think so. The encouraging thing to me is knowing the Republican platform against gay acts to tell him to go f-himself, I thought, was a real advance.

      KING: Oh, I see. It's progress. '

  • On the polarized nation:
    • ' STEWART: Right. Do both sides see it. And that's what we've done is basically -- conversation in this country, debate in this country is from the right and the left and there's ten different kinds of coke. You're telling me the only two opinions we've got is right and left? Even a graph has a Y axis. I don't understand how we ended up in this place where it's considered decent news analysis to do an event and then say from the right guy and from the left that guy. Thanks. When did the journalists become a referee? And why doesn't that person have the ability to say, stop lying about that, you know, police it. Be our -- help us!'
• Hillary Clinton: No to Cabinet, Won't Say on VP.
  • Well, I really shouldn't post this link because I'm not into that sort of speculation.
  • Related: Drudge Report spreads rumor too
• Former head of GOP consulting group pleads guilty to jamming Democratic phone lines. Those Republicans are such patriotic, upright citizens.

WarCraft

• I see that Battle.net reset the competition ladders. This makes a lot of sense since a ladder should be used to determine the better players for a season, instead of "all time". I also hope that they've fixed their ladder calculations because it did seem that my ladder experience points kept rising (with no end in sight) even though my win ration was less than 50%. I was at Level 16 before they reset the ladder.

World

• 350,000 March For More Democracy In Hong Kong. 'Hundreds of thousands of people braved sweltering heat and humidity here Thursday to march through Hong Kong in an impassioned plea to China to hear their political voice, on the seventh anniversary of the former British colony's handover to Beijing.'

2004-07-06t04:03:24Z | RE: Martial Arts. Gorget. Armor.
Shopping for a Gorget

I needed to get a gorget (neck armor or guruwa in Japanese), for use in sword class. I thought I'd blog about the experience to help me track the options and to share my experience.

• Some of the sites offer gorgets with bevors which are very nice but can't be worn with a fencing mask so I didn't include any of those. In the future I might like a bevor and sallet combo though.
• I did not include any of the ridiculous gorgets without collars. They're not bishops collars or anything.
• I didn't include any of the large number of ceremonial or dress collars out there.
• Some of the models below did not provide any collar bone protection so I decided against them. However they might be useful if you already have that sort of protection. EG: Japanese gorgets (guruwa) are often just for the neck.
  
• I've listed leather gorgets, but the only reason to get a leather gorget would be if you practiced with really flimsy swords --which I don't do-- so I decided against them.
• I'm sure there are other sites and people who make better gorgets or custom gorgets. If you happen to be one of them, please contact me and I'll append this post with your information because this post will come up when people Google the Web for "gorget armor" or "gorget armour".

Here are the sites in the order that I stumbled upon them.

Vistar Armoury stocks 4 classic gorgets. They all come in sizes 14", 16", 18", and 20". Shipping is $15 and ship time is 2-4 weeks. http://www.vistarmoury.com/plate/index.html.

• 'This stylish gorget is modeled after those of the 16th and 17th Century. Constructed of 18 gauge mild steel with period closures, rolled edges, recessed border, decorative brass rivets, and standard satin finish. Other finishes available. Measurements must be taken while wearing any applicable padded garments. Padding not included.' .
  Plain ($60) or deluxe ($70).
• ' This slim "brigandine" gorget is designed with safety and comfort in mind, providing ample coverage to the throat and collarbones while not inhibiting arm mobility. A good choice for those using two-handed weapons. Durable 6-7oz. leather is lined with contoured 16 gauge mild steel plates. A fine choice for the re-enactor wishing to portray pre-15th Century periods, this gorget is not strictly historical but rather an item that "could have been." Legal in all Kingdoms of the SCA (please check your local regulations.)' Price: $70.
• ' This wider "brigandine" gorget is designed for the combatant who desires extra protection to the chest and collarbones. Recommended for sword and shield usage. Durable 6-7oz. leather is lined with contoured 16 gauge mild steel plates. A fine choice for the re-enactor wishing to portray pre-15th Century periods, this gorget is not strictly historical but rather an item that "could have been." Legal in all Kingdoms of the SCA (please check your local regulations.) ' Price: $75.

Albion Armorers stocks 2 gorgets (they have a bevor too).

• '16 guage with 18 guage neck rings, pin closure on all plates, rolled bottom edge, drilled for pauldron straps.' http://www.albionarmorers.com/armor/mercenary/gorget.htm.
  $160 in stock. Sizing not mentioned.
• '7-8 oz. latigo leather with 18 gauge plates. Worn large to accommodate a heavy gambeson. Popular in Eastern Europe well into the 15th century. Can be strapped to take pauldrons or espauliers.'. http://www.albionarmorers.com/armor/mercenary/gorget-14thc.htm.
  $130 in stock

Renstore offers several gorgets:

• ' Stainless Steel Gorget w/ Snap Closure Neck protection designed to SCA requirements. Sizes: S/M (smaller than 17 inches) or L/X (17 inch neck and larger). 16-gauge. Product No. KNI-122-1.' http://www.renstore.com/cgi-bin/Renstore.storefront/40d8a568003e7732273f407725da06ab/Product/View/KNI&2D122&2D1.
  $84.95 in stock.  Sizes: S-M and L-X.
• ' Leather Gorget w/ Metal Plates Much like a steel toed boot, this leather gorget gives you the added protection of inner steel plating. All leather construction, available with brass or nickel riveting. Weight is approx. 1½ lbs. with side strap buckle for easy on/off use. Product No: KNI-080-1' http://www.renstore.com/cgi-bin/Renstore.storefront/40d8a568003e7732273f407725da06ab/Product/View/KNI&2D080&2D1.
  $89.95 special order. Sizes: S-L or X-3X.

The Badgers Den show 3 gorgets with crappy pictures. http://www.badgersden.com/Armoury/Gorgets.htm.

• Standard $40. Sizes: XS, S, M, L, XL, and custom.
• Standard Bibbed $75.
• Mild Steel 3-Piece Articulated Gorget $49. Available blackend too.

Arms and Armor Manufacture offers one gorget --although there were some bevors and a non-collared gorget. http://www.arms-armor.cz/index.php?catalog=true&src=products&category=PA&PHPSESSID=1e88d3be55264664406dc4e7e6402d2c.

• The PA004. No prices or sizes given.

MacKenzie-Smith offers several gorgets. http://www.mackenziesmith.com/Our_Products/Plate_Armor/Gorgets/gorgets.html.

• ' Round-bib Gorget: our most popular model. Can be worn either alone or with additional armor components. Available with either a beaded or stepped outer edge. '
  $125.00 s&h $8.95. No sizing mentioned.
• ' Square-bib Gorget: designed specifically to the worn beneath a breastplate, yet an imposing and attractive accessory on its own. '
  $150.00 s&h $8.95. No sizing mentioned.
• ' Fantasy Gorget: fluted and scalloped to correspond with our Winged Helmets. A logical "next" step after the purchase of a helmet. '
  $125.00 s&h $8.95. No sizing mentioned.

WoodenSwords.com (aka Purpleheart Armoury) offers 1 leather gorget.

• 'I am pleased to offer this simple, inexpensive leather gorget. Available in natural brown leather this gorget offers protection during rapier swordplay to the front of the throat, larynx, and back of the neck. Its simple design allows ease of movement and comfort that other larger designs do not allow. An easily accessible buckle allows quick adjustment. Once size fits all. Typically in stock.'
  $25.

Griffin Works offers 2 leather gorgets. 'These gorgets are made of the finest 10+ ounce vegetable tanned leather and are hand dyed and assembled with the finest of hardware. These gorgets are legal in all SCA kingdoms for fencing and heavy weapons.' http://www.griffin-works.com/view_list.php?subcat=Gorget.

• 'Simple and effective. They are made of a front and back piece that is hinged on one side with a chicago screw, and a buckle and strap on the other. We generally stock black with silver hardware and dark brown with gold hardware.'
  $45.
• $50
• $60

Therions Arms has 4 gorgets. These guys are great! The offer the most detail about their products and the most pictures of their products from different angles. However, I did notice that these appear to be the exact same gorgets that Vistar Armory sells but at a greater price.  http://therionarms.com/reenact/armor.shtml

• 'Leather and steel brigandine gorget. Provides throat and collarbone protection for a variety of combat activities. Armor technology has sure come a long way since the days me and my droogies used to take 70's leather "hippie hats" and convert them into gorgets. This brig gorget looks much nicer than what we wore twenty years ago. Six-ounce leather and 16 gauge steel plates (painted black to resist rust).'
  $120. In M 16", L 18", XL 20" neck.
• $105. Sames size but slim line version.
• 'Mid 16th to late 17th century style gorget. Rolled edges, steel rivets, articulated standing colar. Colar pin-locks in place on both sides, and the main body of the gorget hinges on one side and slots and locks on the other. 18ga steel construction. Made in the USA.'
  $95. In S 14", M 16", L 18", XL 20" neck.
• 'Mid 16th to late 17th century style gorget. Rolled edges, recessed border, brass rivets, articulated standing colar. Colar pin-locks in place on both sides, and the main body of the gorget hinges on one side and slots and locks on the other. 18ga steel construction. Made in the USA.'
  $115. Same sizes.

Ebay had several gorgets for sale but only one was notable. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3918551105&category=208&sspagename=rvi:1:1.

• 'The metal plates are 18 ga type 304 stainless steel polished to a high shine they are held down by copper rivits. the leather is 60z black leather double chap steer hide. It is made to fit up to a 21 inch neck. The padding does not come with the gorget but I can add some foam for you to custom pad your own for only 2.00 more. ' 
  Starting bid was $1, but the minimum reserve bid was hidden.

Kusari's Chainmail had 1 gorget of note.  http://artofchainmail.com/chainmailbykusari/chainmail33.html.

• 'This stainless steel gorget (neck protection) can be worn in several different styles. Worn outside the clothing it makes for heavy-duty neck decoration. Concealed under a shirt, with just the top showing (dicky-style), it can create the illusion of wearing an entire chainmail shirt. Either way, it's guaranteed as bite proof against 98% of modern vampires. Material - 3/16" interior diameter, stainless steel, flattened and butted links.'
  $225.

By the Sword had 2 gorgets. http://www.by-the-sword.com/acatalog/Sports_Armour.html.

• ' #SCA-10 Gorget (Steel) Munitions grade Armour made from 16 gauge polished steel and leather. These economically priced gorget comes in one size and fits approximately an 18-20" neck. Includes front and back steel plates that are padded with soft supple black leather on the inside. Comes with straps and buckles. '
  '$45.00 (Excluding: FL Sales Tax at 6%'
• ' #SCA-11 Gorget With Chest Plates (Steel) Munitions grade Armour made from 16 gauge polished steel and leather. These economically priced gorget comes in one size and fits approximately an 18-20" neck. Includes front and back steel plates that are padded with soft supple black leather on the inside. Also includes overlapping chest plates. Comes with straps and buckles. '
  'Per Pair $51.00 (Excluding: FL Sales Tax at 6%)'

Follow Ups

2004-07-06t04:03:24Z. Just a few seconds ago I placed my order online at Vistar Armory for the 18" deluxe gorget at a cost of $70 + $15 shipping. The gorget should arrive in 2-4 weeks, i.e. July 19 or August 2. It's somewhat perplexing that after all this comparison shopping, I bought my gorget from the very first site that I came upon!

2004-07-15t16:07:41Z. My gorget arrived promptly from Vistar Armory. It's exactly as I expected it to be. I'll just sand a few spots, smooth it out with a metal polish (I'll try Brasso), and then it should be ready for use.

2004-07-15t16:09:41Z. Galls has a modern gorget that is probably meant for empty hand martial arts. This one was brought to my attention by Karen R. https://www.galls.com/style.html?style=TE262&assort=general_catalog.

• ' TE262 Galls® Cushioned Neck Protector. 100% polyester padded dickie safeguards your neck and larynx. 8" x 1" plastic insert covers the larynx. Lined with soft terrycloth for comfort. Adjusts from the smallest neck size to a 20" neck circumference. 7"H x 12"W x 2"D. Black. Imported.'
  $14.99.

2004-07-14t15:39:06Z | RE: Animations/Videos. Anyone But Bush. Comic Art. Computers. Cyber Life. Family Values. Food. Faith. Fun. Games. Green. Healthcare. Housing. Images. Interesting. Iraq. Local. Martial Arts. Media. Money. Politics. Programming. Robots. Science. Sex. Show Biz. Travel. US. US Elections. World. Writing.
2004-07-14t15:39:06Z

Animations/Videos

• Tranquility Base [video]. A simple visit to see some sheep, goats, and stuff. Good for insomniacs.
• Tickle-me flower drawing. A Java applet the little kids will love.
• Bush giving evil speech to evil doers [Flash animation]. I may have posted this before but here it is just in case I didn't.
• http://www.suburbanautogroup.com/chevy/index.html [video]. This is an oldie but it has some video commercials that answers the question "What if I had a trained ape in my trunk?". I have minor issues with the term "trunk monkey" because the ads use chimpanzees, and chimps are apes, not monkeys.
• Paper Wars [Flash animation]. A simple love story with stick figures.
• Alien in 30 seconds, re-enacted by bunnies [Flash animation]. The latest in the series of re-enactments:
  • The Exorcist in 30 seconds, re-enacted by bunnies
  • The Shining in 30 seconds, re-enacted by bunnies
  • Titanic in 30 seconds, re-enacted by bunnies
• Elektronik Supersonik [mpg]. This is purposely wrong but it's good. I love it!

Anyone But Bush

• This is a joke that's passing around now:

  Dear Abby:
  
  I am a crack dealer in Beaumont, Texas who has recently been diagnosed as a carrier of HIV virus.
  
  My parents live in Fort Worth and one of my sisters, who lives in Pflugerville, is married to a transvestite. My father and mother have recently been arrested for growing and selling marijuana. They are financially dependent on my other two sisters, who are prostitutes in Dallas. I have two brothers, one is currently serving a non-parole life sentence at Huntsville for the murder of a teenage boy in 1994. My other brother is currently in jail awaiting charges of sexual misconduct with his three children.
  
  I have recently become engaged to marry a former prostitute who lives in Longview. She is a part time "working girl". All things considered, my problem is this. I love my fiancee and look forward to bringing her into the family. I certainly want to be totally open and honest with her.
  
  Should I tell her about my cousin who supports George Bush for President?
  
  Signed,
  
  Worried About My Reputation

• DesignsOnTheWhiteHouse.com. Nice T-shirt designs and stuff.
  
• CafeShops.com/VPquote. Yes, they're making T-shirts and stuff based on VP Dick Cheney's recent public blurb.
  
• StopBushProject.com
  • 'This site is a documentation of anti-Bush sentiment from around the world expressed through graffiti, placards, flyers and other spontaneous, 'guerilla' means.'
  • I suspect that a bunch of these are actually photo-edited images.
• Documentary Director Morris to Make Anti-Bush Ads
  • 'Errol Morris, whose documentary "The Fog of War" earned the Oscar for 2003, has enlisted with the political action group MoveOn to create television ads aimed at ousting President Bush this fall, the group said on Friday.'
• "The case against Bush, part 1: Closing of the presidential mind" by Franklin Foer as published in in The New Republic.
  • Lots of good stuff. I was going to quote some of it but it seemed like I was going to end up quoting the whole article.
  • 'The most common explanation for this animus is that the White House overflows with political hacks uninterested in the nitty-gritty of policy. But the administration's expert-bashing also has deep roots in ideology. Since its inception, modern American conservatism has harbored a suspicion of experts, who, through adherence to inductive reasoning and academic methodologies, claim to provide objective research and analysis. To be sure, this social-scientific approach has its limits. Conservatives have raised genuinely troubling questions about its predilection for downplaying the role of "culture" and "values" in shaping human behavior. But the Bush administration has adopted a far more extreme version of this critique: It takes the radically postmodern view that "science," "objectivity," and "truth" are guises for an ulterior, leftist agenda; that experts are so incapable of dispassionate and disinterested analysis that their work doesn't even merit a hearing. And the results have been disastrous.'
• Role Reversal
  • ' Since 1932 Democrats have been so confident of the inherent virtue of government that they have been willing to trust any amount of power to it. The liberal agenda boiled down to the growth of government power. Republicans were the naysayers, forever quoting the Founding Fathers' warnings that government power meant liberty's demise.

    The administration of President George W. Bush has brought a reversal of these positions. Conservative Republicans argue that government can be trusted with any amount of power in the war against terrorism. Habeas corpus, the attorney-client privilege, due process -- indeed, the full range of constitutional rights -- have been set aside as obstacles to the war on terrorism. Patriotic citizens have nothing to fear, say the conservatives, as the police state methods will only be employed against terrorists.

    Such assurances have always proven false. '

  • 'Senator Robert Byrd (D-WVa), the Constitution's greatest -- and perhaps only -- defender in the US government, early warned that elements in the Bush administration were using deception to manufacture an Iraq crisis. The consequences would be dire, Byrd predicted. The US would cease to be perceived as peacemaker and be seen as warmonger. To facilitate its conduct of war, Byrd warned that the Bush administration would seek to reduce the powers of Congress and the rights of citizens.'
  • ' Are we witnessing an American version of the Reichstag fire in which dictatorial powers are created and civil rights subverted in the name of crisis? Can the Bush administration be held accountable for unprecedented lies and deceptions? Will the newly asserted powers of the executive survive Bush's administration and permanently unbalance the balance of powers?

    The stakes for liberty and political accountability have never been higher than they will be in November. '

• Senator Edwards Speaks Out! 'There's that ole story about the lady grew up in my part of the world feedin poisoned acorns to kill the raccoons an the squirrels, next day went out an there was lots of coons an squirrels but mosly there was dead chickens! She got the wrong mix, like our president an vice president, they got the wrong mix, an we got more terrorists an the drug industry in America is gettin more medicines which we can sell only to Canadians because they get them at half price. That's the only country doesn't give us immigration problems--they can't afford to come south, they'd lose their free medicines.'
• Pentagon Says Bush Records of Service Were Destroyed
  • Ha ha ha! How lame! LAME, LAME, LAME!
  • ' Military records that could help establish President Bush's whereabouts during his disputed service in the Texas Air National Guard more than 30 years ago have been inadvertently destroyed, according to the Pentagon. '
  • Bush must have been using the "my dog ate my homework" excuse his entire life. The thing is he has the strings to pull all this off. Variations:
    • The CIA gave me bad intelligence on WMDs in Iraq.
    • The CIA gave me bad intelligence on 9/11-to-Iraq connections.
    • The Geneva Conventions abuses went on without my knowledge.
    • I don't know who had outed CIA operatives.
    • They had nothing specific about al Queda attacking the US while I vacationed 40% of my term before 9/11.
  • BULL SHIT!
  • ' There was no mention of the loss, for example, when White House officials released hundreds of pages of the President's military records last February in an effort to stem Democratic accusations that he was "AWOL" for a time during his commitment to fly at home in the Air National Guard during the Vietnam War. '
• It's time for a little bit of Cicero [The First Oration Against Catiline and Catiline Orations]:
  • ' WHEN, O Catiline Bush, do you mean to cease abusing our patience? How long is that madness of yours still to mock us? When is there to be an end of that unbridled audacity of yours, swaggering about as it does now? '
• The kidnap videos in Iraq are suspicious. Some say they are fake. Some make their own... what do you think of this one?. He he. Now Al-Jazeera has a funny "not Bush" video.

Comic Art

• News Skim part 1 [verbally NSFW] and part 2 and part 3 and part 4 by Jay Pinkerton. Holy crap! This is funny outrageous shit going down here! It actually looks much better than the current election. It's like Maddox but with more comic art talent.
  
• Not Funnies
  • ' Someday the novel, too, will go into decline -- if it hasn't already -- and will become, like poetry, a genre treasured and created by just a relative few. This won't happen in our lifetime, but it's not too soon to wonder what the next new thing, the new literary form, might be. It might be comic books. Seriously. Comic books are what novels used to be -- an accessible, vernacular form with mass appeal -- and if the highbrows are right, they're a form perfectly suited to our dumbed-down culture and collective attention deficit. Comics are also enjoying a renaissance and a newfound respectability right now. In fact, the fastest-growing section of your local bookstore these days is apt to be the one devoted to comics and so-called graphic novels. '
  • The comic book format is a severely under-rated medium of vast potential. The term "graphic novel" is the next most popular name for the medium. Scott McLoud (of Understanding Comics) prefers "sequential art". I prefer "graphic book" or "comic art".
• Superman 1 Batman 1 Amazing Fantasy 15 Spider-man X-men $1mil collection full runs of ASM X-men Hulk FF +more. The collection was going for US $199,100 when I checked.
  

Computers

• Microsoft posts work-around for IE flaw. 'The flaw, in an ActiveX scripting component, gained notoriety last month when it became the mechanism used by a network of compromised Web sites to install a malicious program on victims' computers. Microsoft has decided to plug the hole by turning off the ability for the ActiveX component to write to the operating system. The software giant published the work-around on its Web site and directed customers to use its Windows update service to download the patch.'
• Ballmer: Microsoft needs better sales pitch
  • ' "We must also work to change a number of customer perceptions, including the views that older versions of Office and Windows are good enough, and that Microsoft is not sufficiently focused on security," Ballmer wrote in a wide-ranging memo to employees, a missive that has become something of an annual tradition as Microsoft starts its new fiscal year. '
    • Well they are good enough. Just like the English alphabet is good enough. It's not so much your tools, but what you do with your tools.
    • Obviously MS isn't solving our problems anymore: they are only serving their problems (which is to trick us into buying more stuff).
• FreedomScientific.com. This site sells computer accessibility products. I assume that there are other sites that sell similar stuff but this is the first time that I've seen a computer with a Braille display. I wonder if the Braille displays are as easy to read as Braille books.
  
• BrailleNote PK. By coincidence I also ran across this Braille PDA.

Cyber Life

• I used to have McAfee anti-virus software on my home desktop computer and I had a lot of pop up ads. Admittedly, my version of McAfee software was probably from pre-adware days. Wednesday I finally received my CD of the Symantec's Norton Internet Security suite (Symantec.com) . It turns out I had 1 virus, a few spyware files, and tons of adware! 5 printed pages worth! I look forward to having all that crap wiped out from my computer.
• Pencil necked chic: Being a geek is cool, possibly sexy. Films, fashions and even a nerdy action figure send a new message: Dweebie is dreamy. Hey, but I already knew I was cool.
• GeekCode.com. This site, on the other hand, is a demonstration of a geek with too much time on his hands.
• GoogleGuide.com/advanced_operators.html. Some fancy Google search operators that Google doesn't document. But on the other hand, I usually find what I want with regular searches.
• Godwin's Law: Not Meant To Be Invoked.
  • ' The Law is actually stated thusly: As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one. Unfortunately, a lot of people on the 'net try to invoke Godwin's Law in order to, by default, win an argument. This isn't what Godwin's Law is about. '
  • ' Godwin's Law isn't about "winning" or "losing" a debate. It's about promoting critical thinking and proving your point. Comparing one's opponent to Hitler/Pinochet/Pol Pot/Stalin does nothing for the argument, but rather admits that you don't have anything more to say. However, it isn't gracious to rub this in someone's face, which is, really, what's occurring when someone invokes Godwin's Law. Not only is it ungracious, but it, too, demonstrates that you've also run out of things to say. Thus, I submit my Corollary: Following a demonstration of Godwin's Law in action, the first person to refer to Godwin's Law also loses. This doesn't mean the other person wins. It means you both lose. Neither of you is, any longer, participating in a useful debate (there's another corollary along the same lines) and you should both back off and give up before you succeed in making yourselves look like bigger asses. '
  • Well, duh! All this is pretty obvious to me but on the other hand there are a lot of boneheads out there who like to argue badly.
• Skype.com.
  • ' Skype is free and simple software that will enable you to make free calls anywhere in the world in minutes. Skype, created by the people who brought you KaZaA, uses innovative P2P (peer-to-peer) technology to connect you with other Skype users. If you are tired of paying outrageous fees for telephony, Skype is for you!

    Skype is quick and easy to install. Just download it, register, and within minutes you can plug in your PC headset and call your friends on Skype. Skype calls have excellent sound quality and are highly secure with end-to-end encryption. Best of all, Skype does not require you to reconfigure your firewall or router--it just works!'

• BYOPVR.com.
  • ' Welcome to Build Your Own PVR! This is a community driven discussion for building your own PVR / HTPC (think Tivo without a recurring $ub$cription). Anything from mini-itx, case modding, which video card, to which software package is most advanced is fair game. '
  • Might as well --the DVD player's we've had have been all been lousy.
• Chatango.com.
  • ' It's the first tool for real-time, private, disposable, one-to-one communication. It works just like one of those IM [Instant Messenging] products, but doesn't require a download, and is accessible from any computer! '
  • Wow! This can have a lot of uses. The usage that comes to my mind is the ability to IM from someone else's machine. And you'd be able to IM with people regardless of what IM the people you're chatting with usually use.
    

Family Values

• Put Up the Hoop Sooner 10 lessons of parenting from one wise guy who's done doing the dad thing
  • Essential reading for dads from a dad who finally got his kids off to college.
  • His list:
    1. I Would Have Packed the Car More Often
    2. I Would Have Tried To Spin Things Less
    3. I Would Have Raised My Voice Less
    4. I Would Have Put Up the Hoop Sooner
    5. I Would Have Hung Around More at Bedtime
    6. I Would Have Bought More Hamsters
    7. I Would Have Invested The First Five Minutes More
    8. I Would Have Been More Patient With Fantasy
    9. I Would Have Touched Them More
    10. I Would Have Been Alone With Each of My Kids More Often
    11. I Would Have Had More Kids

Food

• Beershots: Microscopic views of beers around the world. Bah! Some geeks justification for buying a lot of beer.

Faith

• 'Bad' Catholics. Ha ha! The Right trying to use the Catholic church as a political tool.

Fun

• LowBrow.com
  • 'Lowbrow.com is dedicated to bringing you the best user submitted content about scraping the bottom and being a general piece of shit. It is about moments where you said something completely inappropriate, where you stuck your foot in your mouth, or stamped the air out of some poor fuck's lungs.'
  • A lot of it is lame but it has gems like the following:
    • ' My dad and I are in a convenience store buying some beer or gas or something. Up at the counter is a lady furiously scratching scratch ticket after scratch ticket while her muddy-mouthed kid begs her teary-eyed for a thing of milk. '
    • ' One time I was waiting for a bus, and this older women with a load of shopping walked right in front of me, it was winter and she slipped on some ice I guess. I didn't help, I just stood and watched whilst she picked herself up and carried on her way. I thought it was my good deed of the year... I mean I didn't laugh in her face. '
    • ' Once dated a guy because I thought he had a cool name. Ended up his mother got it from Gunsmoke. Oh the white trash shame of it all. '
    • ' While working as a medic in an army clinic in Japan, I had to take a rather large-breasted woman for a mammogram at a local university hospital off-base. The Japanese X-ray tech is very nervous, especially after Ms. Double-D strips to the waist. He gets her all set up and then goes behind the shield to the controls. He calls out to her to hold her breath, but because of his accent, it comes out, "Please hold your breasts." She looks momentarily perplexed, then sort of shrugs, cups her boobs in her hands, and lifts them up. The poor X-ray tech nearly passed-out. '
• PenTrix.com. Heaven forbid that I ever get so bored that I want to do tricks with a pen.
• The perfect angle to staple paper. Let the arguments begin! Degrees shown: 0, 22.5, 45, 67.5, and 90. One visitor did have a nice point that the 0 degree angle is good for documents that are put into 3 ring binders.
• I can't believe that I saw the US Secretary of State doing a YMCA skit on TV with my own eyes! I almost felt an urge to gouge my own eyes out. It was almost as bizarre as Ashcroft singing that song in Fahrenheit 9/11. At least he memorized all his words and moves.
  
• AllAboutFrogs.org.
• ZapatoPI.net.
  • 'Zapato Productions Intradimensional. Your Source For Conspiracies & Other Diversions'
  • The nifty MindGuard software is a relative of the mind-reading blocking tin foil hats.
• WackyPackages.com. The original Wacky Package stickers (see them at WackyPackages.org) have been reborn. I remember them from when I was a kid: sort of like mini Mad magazines.
• I Gave My Cat an Enema. He medically had to do it but the funny thing about the page are the crayon drawings. I've assisted my mom, who's a veterinarian, in many procedures including enemas so I empathize with him.
• The Basic Laws Of Human Stupidity. The laws:
  1. Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
  2. The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.
  3. A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.
  4. Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.
  5. A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person. A stupid person is more dangerous than a bandit.
• The Lighter Side of Trach Life [with background music]. I'm enlightened that this guy has fun with his trach. I'm sure that my wife, who's a Respiratory Therapist and has dealt with 100s of trachs, will love this one.
• BushSpeech.org [Interactive Flash]. This one can be fun. String together video bites of Bush speaking to make him say whatever they have available.

Games

• Coming home after curfew [Flash]. It's an ad for the Splinter Cell video game but it's fun. The kids loved the potty humor.
• Yeti playing baseball with a penguin [Flash]. One in the whole line of online Yeti games. There is, of course, a bloody modified version [Flash]. My daughter sent that penguin out as far as 1017.9.
• rfmud.com. Rising Force Mud. Ha ha! Apparently some people are still playing MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons)!
• Bubbles [Flash]. Simple but fast.
• Don't Let Go [Flash]. Challenge your mouse skills.

Green

• Bush to open forests to logging, mining. Bah. Bush can apparently wage evil on multiple fronts.

Healthcare

• The Masai Anti-Cellulite Plan. So they have these funky shoes that forces you to have good posture and to have a gait similar to the Masai of Africa who walk their herds for great distances and they are all very slim.
• Health-care costs shoot up, millions in U.S. left gasping.
  • Umm, have healthcare costs ever stopped shooting up?
  • 'In 1997, the United States spent $1.1 trillion on health care, or about 13.5 percent of the nation's gross domestic product. Last year, it spent $1.5 trillion, or 14.9 percent of the country's GDP. Government actuaries predict that by 2013, the nation will spend $3.36 trillion on health care, or 18.4 percent of its GDP.'
  • 'For the average American family with the median household income of $42,409, the increases have meant steep increases in what they and their employers have paid for health insurance. Last year, the average premium for a family of four was $9,086, up from $6,348 in 2000.'
  • 'Mr. Brass says the rising number of uninsured, and underinsured, in America is "becoming a critical problem." He says some estimates predict in two years the number of uninsured could climb to 51 million. That is more than the combined population of Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Iowa. Hospitals, including his, are struggling to absorb those unpaid costs and that trend cannot continue unabated, he says.'
  • ' 80 percent of those without insurance have jobs. But most of those jobs either do not offer coverage or offer it at a price they can't afford.'
  • ' For those at the federal poverty level - which this year the federal government defines as $18,850 for a family of four - it would take 40 percent or more of their income to buy a basic health insurance policy. '
  • ' An estimated 18,000 people die annually because they lack health insurance and cannot get, or avoid the cost of, necessary medical treatment. '
  • ' The United States is the only industrialized country to rely on the private sector to provide most of the health coverage for its citizens. Good or bad, one result has been the United States spends the most of any country on health care, both nationwide and per person. America spends about $5,000 a person on health care, compared to $3,300 for the next closest country, Switzerland, which has government-run health care.

    The results of these differences are mixed. One simple measure is to compare average life expectancy. Last year, the average life expectancy in this country was just over 77 years. In Canada, which spends about $2,800 per person on health care - or about 60 percent of what the United States spends - average life expectancy is 80. '

    • Because we pay more doesn't mean we get better care -- it means we're paying more than we ought to.
• As far as I'm concerned, the healthcare industry in the US is broken politically and financially. It's not a free market, it's a false market that barely works. The prescription drug companies and insurance companies are too involved. The way things stand private healthcare is run less efficiently than public run healthcare. Public money should pay for healthcare and healthcare research. There should be universal healthcare, socialized medicine, or whatever you want to call it.
  
  Make no mistake: The US has a lot of good medical science but our implementation of it sucks. There is good healthcare for the wealthy in the US but healthcare should not be such a huge financial burden on ordinary folk. The huge financial burden of healthcare is one of the factors that allows the vicious cycle of poverty to continue. A high civilization should care for its old and sick.
• The Truth About the Drug Companies
• COD = Cash-Only Doctors
  • ' When O'Brien leaves the exam room, he writes a check for $50 and he's done -- no forms, no ID numbers, no copayments. "This is traditional medicine. This is what America was like 30 years ago," said O'Brien, 55 and self-employed, who believes he has saved thousands of dollars by dropping his expensive insurance policy and paying cash. "It's a whole world of difference." '
  • ' An obstetrician-gynecologist in Salt Lake City, Nelson easily recalled times when he believed managed care rules prevented his patients from getting the best treatment. He said cash-only doctors are driven by the desire to practice medicine without interference. "There is a great intrusion by third parties into the patient-physician relationship," Nelson said. "We can understand their frustration." '
• Disease Cards [PDF]. These are cards for kids that give info about various diseases.
• AIDs is now at the worst that it's ever been
  • HIV outpaces global response
    • ' The HIV epidemic is worse than ever. A new report from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) shows that the virus is overriding attempts to contain it, despite billions of dollars of funding. '
    • ' The latest numbers allow only one conclusion: that AIDS has become a global phenomenon. It was once seen as predominantly an African issue, but now an estimated 38 million people worldwide are HIV positive, and infection rates are rising on every continent. Last year, around 5 million people became infected with HIV, more than in any previous year. '
  • The AIDS Epidemic in 2004
  • 2004 Report on the global AIDS epidemic
  • Confronting HIV-AIDS
  • Anger over Bush administration approach to AIDS
  • Bush Urged to Get Serious About Global AIDS Fight in Run-up to Bangkok Conference
    • So much for his compassion. Many of these AIDS victims are kids.

Housing

• Abito.co.uk. Gee, they're marketing 347 square foot apartments.

Images

• Lomography.com. Their business is selling gimmicky cameras, but I like their emphasis on photographic freedom and experimentation. The site is edgy both in design and web tech, but that also means it's difficult to deal with.
• Scrap Books. Scanned images of misc. stuff. Lots of retro stuff. Related: FoundMagazine.com.
• Fark photoshop contest based on NY Post error. I was going to ignore the original error (A NY Post Scoop: Kerry Picks Gephardt!), but this is funny stuff at Fark, esp. when they start doing parodies on the parodies.
  
• Keith's Fractal Art
• HappyPencil.com [Flash]. Creepy illustrations.
• Museum of Park Slides. It's all in Japanese but my kids might like the pictures of the different playground slides anyway.
• Regeneration: Contemporary Chinese Art From China and the US
• Viceland.com's v11n6 photo issue [NSFW]
  

Interesting

• Parents of caged boys jailed 9 months: Penalty doesn't fit 13-year crime. Sigh.
• BadMags.com [NSFW].
  • 'The Flip Side of Popular Culture As Seen Through Magazines and Tabloids!'
  • Magazines from the 50s-70s about stuff like: Mondo Bizarre, Sexploitation Film Slicks, Edw. D. Wood, Jr., Occult Sex, Manson, Sharon Tate Outlaw Bikers, Myron Fass, Violent World, and Punks.

Iraq

• RockPaperSaddam.com. Pretty funny parody of Saddam Hussein on trial in Iraq.
• "Lessons to Take"
  • "Ideology makes a poor substitute for strategy."
  • "Wars leave loose ends."
    • Wonderful, concise language. "The United States has exchanged the limited burdens of containment for the far more onerous burdens of occupation."
  • "Allies have choices-and will exercise them."
    • "Nations whose support we once assumed to be a given now question the acceptability of the Pax Americana and may yet muster the collective will to proffer an alternative." Thus, the fragmented coalition against Saddam threatens NATO solidarity.
  • "'Shock and awe' gets you only so far."
    • This is very plain, and the author concludes, "The United States military is no closer today to devising a technological solution to the riddle of unconventional war than it was when Vietnam ended in defeat."
  • "The margin of U.S. military supremacy is thinner than advertised."
    • The shortage of our straitened military resources is every day visible. We have called up reserves for the first time in decades. We needed to move forces from South Korea to Iraq. And in Iraq, with 140,000 U.S. troops, we can't yet guarantee safe passage from the Baghdad airport to Baghdad.
  • "The myth of American casualty aversion is just that."
  • "So too [is it a myth] that there is an American genius for spreading democracy."
    • We aren't particularly good at it, says Bacevich, so we should devise fresh ideas. Meanwhile, consider the possibility that "bringing democracy to the Arab world is akin to making bricks without straw."
  • "It's hard to win when you don't know whom you're fighting."
• ICcasualties.org. This site tracks the number of "Coalition" casualties (wounded and/or killed) in Iraq. The site does not track the number of Iraqis killed. The fatalities so far [2004-07-12] are: 887 US, 60 UK, 60 Other, 1007 Total, 2.09 avg. per day.
• Investigations Multiply for Oil Giant Halliburton
• International organization calls for releasing children detainees in Iraq. Related:
  • Children in Iraqi prisons
  • Pentagon to Brief Congress on ICRC Reports
• 'The Dots Never Existed': A damning report on Iraq intelligence failures throws the administration a Curve Ball
  • 'The saga of Curve Ball is just one of many wince-inducing moments to be found in the 500-page Senate report, which lays out how the U.S. intelligence community utterly failed to accurately assess the state of Saddam Hussein's programs for weapons of mass destruction--and how White House and Pentagon officials, intent on taking the country to war, unquestioningly embraced the flawed conclusions.'
  • ' When U.N. inspectors returned to Iraq in the fall of 2002 and reported that they couldn't find any Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, for instance, the CIA dismissed the inspectors as gullible neophytes who were being tricked by deceitful Iraqi handlers. Similarly, when several Iraqi officials and scientists stepped forward to claim that Saddam had actually destroyed his WMD stockpiles and discontinued his programs (a claim that appears increasingly likely to have been the truth), they were branded as liars--while dubious sources like Curve Ball, whose stories were in step with the administration, were embraced. '
    • And yet Bush persists on trying to blame this on the CIA and will try to get away with it.
• It looks like the British also suffered an intelligence failure prior to invading Iraq. Blair is passing the buck to MI6 just like Bush is passing the buck to the CIA. The "intelligence" may have been bad but so was the intelligence and instincts of Blair and Bush.
  • Butler report on war in Iraq printed in secret to avoid leaks
  • A failure of intelligence: In his Iraq dossier, the Prime Minister said he believed the intelligence showed "beyond doubt" that Saddam Hussein was producing chemical and biological weapons.
  • MI6 'retracted' Iraq intelligence: Dr Jones questioned Tony Blair's evidence to the Hutton Inquiry Tony Blair's war case has suffered a fresh blow after MI6 took the rare step of withdrawing intelligence about Iraq's WMD, the BBC has learned.
  • Spy chiefs 'withdrew' Saddam arms claim
  • Gilligan's report 'unfounded'
  • Brian Jones: What weapons dossier should have said, and what that would have meant for war 'Mr Blair dismissed my concerns as "hardly earth-shattering" but they were significant'
• Hell On Earth: Life in Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, newly available documents show, would have made Satan quake
  • So what we've done is worse than what they've shown so far and what we've seen were definitely not isolated cases.
  • I'm tired, physically tired, of the shit that Bush has done.
  • Related:
    • Shining a light in a real dark place. Several PDFs of parts of the actual reports by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba.
    • Making Torture Legal
• http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/archives/2004_07_01_iraqthemodel_archive.html#108965685940938788. It's good to see Democracy blooming in Iraq even though I disagreed on how we got there.

Local

• Ikea picks 2nd suburban site
  • ' Home-furnishings retailer Ikea has picked a 21-acre location in southwest suburban Bolingbrook for its second Chicago-area store. '
  • ' The store would be smaller than the chain's 465,000-square-foot Midwest anchor near Woodfield mall in Schaumburg. That store opened in 1998 and has annual sales of more than $140 million. '
  • ' Construction could start in the fall for an opening one year later [2005-10]. The store will employ 300 people. '
  • Aw, come on! Bolingbrook is just as far away as Schaumburg and the new store will be smaller too. They should've built it in Chicago proper as they had originally planned. If you look at a map, then clearly Chicagoland would be covered nicely by a triangle where the third store is in Chicago.
• DraftDitka.com. The Republicans in Illinois lost their Senate candidate Jack Ryan and they're so desperate they're fantasizing about having Mike Ditka run? It aint gonna happen --his wife would kill him. Plus as much as we lived him when the Bears were in their prime, I personally have never forgiven him for leaving. Also it wouldn't matter because Barack Obama (D, ObamaForIllinois.com) would still kick his ass!
• World's longest hot dog at Taste of Chicago. Whoo hoo! An 11.6 m (58 foot) hot dog by Vienna. Related: Big Dog.

Martial Arts

• Whips As Practical Weapons. Related: Whips In Xena: Warrior Princess

Media

• OutFoxed.org. A documentary looking into Fox News, their methods, and the memos. Several clips and previews on the site. The thing is everybody in the know knows that Fox News is Right biased but there are so many who don't know this or don't care. All they care is that Fox News say more of what they want to hear.

Money

• DropDownInvoice.xls. I had someone ask me if I could make a quick and dirty invoice where each line has a drop down list of item names which then fills out the item # and item price. The person thought a database would be needed but I came up with a simple solution using entirely Microsoft Excel. I'm sure others have done similar things before.
• Lay Surrenders, Faces 11 Enron Counts. Whoo hoo! Ken Lay in cuffs! Let's see how Dick Cheney's buddy slips out of these. His defense of "I didn't know, I was tricked" is just as absurd as Bush's story.
  
• Ass-vertise.com. Simple silly concept: place advertising on bikini bottoms.

Politics

• Centralist Conservatism and Command Morality
  • Wow. Excellent article. The concept of Libertarian Conservative (Athens) v Centralist Conservative (Sparta) is enlightening. The paradigm of the 2 evils of command economy (communism) and command morality (theocracy) is fascinating.
  • ' Conservatism, as I understand it, has always had as its end the cultivation of virtue in the individual and the community. Of course, the means towards this end have been heavily debated within the conservative movement. (An excellent anthology on these matters is Freedom and Virtue: The Conservative Libertarian Debate by George W. Carey. Murray Rothbard contributed an article to this collection.). I believe that these conceptions of virtue that exist within the conservative movement can be divided into two: The libertarian conservative and the centralist conservative.

    The libertarian conservative understanding of virtue begins with its source -- the individual and the voluntary community into which he is embedded. It emphasizes that virtue comes from the free growth of organic cultural institutions, freedom, authority structures outside of the State, such as the Church and the Family, and from the decentralization of power into distinct units who are able to maintain separate ways of life.

    The centralist conservative understanding of virtue stands in stark opposition to the libertarian understanding. This conception holds that a virtuous leader, especially a State leader, is required to impel his subjects to virtue -- that virtue comes from the top-down, from control, authority within the central State. For the centralist conservative it is the leader of the community, nation, etc. who alone knows the truths of the world and has to keep the people on the steady path to keep them from outside dangers. The leader sends goodness, security, and righteousness down from above. Starting to sound familiar? '

  • ' So, let me then pose a question to all of you: Is it an indicator of growth in the people or an indicator of corruption that parents see the military state as a way to cultivate virtue in the community through the regimentation and training of some of its members?

    The answer seems clear to me: this is one of the central causes of the decline of great civilizations. For we have already lost the battle for our culture and traditions when we send our young men and women away from our community to find out how to live. The battle for genuine authority is given to the enemy when we look at the world, see a lack of civil authority, and look to the military as a replacement.

    When the people believe that the State is not only the source of economic growth, security, and law, but virtue itself, we know that we are living in an age of decline. '

  • ' Libertarians helped to win the battle against the command economy, which is nearly universally recognized as a failure. What the conservative movement must learn is that command morality is just as destructive of the free and virtuous society they support. '

Programming

• Drop-Down Menus, Horizontal Style. Simple method of making ye olde drop down menus out of a regular HTML <ul> list and some CSS.
• Fine-Tune Your Web Site for Windows XP Service Pack 2. So it looks like the delayed SP will give Internet Explorer pop-up blocking capability.

Robots

• The Humanoid Race Machines are getting more and more like the rest of us. A piece-by-piece guide to the globe's most advanced bots.
• Robots get sensitive: Electronic skin could give machines a sophisticated sense of touch.
  
• Robotic wheels that just keep rolling. That is so simple and cool. I'm guessing that this sort of wheel will have an issue about how much weight it can bear. Related: Soft Robot.
  

Science

• Machiavellian Monkeys
  • ' Taking all this into consideration, the primatologists made a pretty gutsy hypothesis: that the challenges of social life--including deception--actually drive the expansion of the primate brain. Sometimes called the Machiavellian Intelligence hypothesis, it has now been put to its most rigorous test so far, and passed quite well. Richard Byrne and Nadia Corp of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland published a study today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. (The link's not up yet, but here's a New Scientist piece.) They found that in 18 species from all the major branches of primates, the size of the neocortex predicts how much deception the species practices. '
  • Oh, so Bush must have a mongo-huge brain!
• SmartKlamp.com. Yowch! Picture of the thing in action on a thingy. Related: SmartKlamp: Single-Use, Automatic Circumcisions.
• More links on the Bush administration's anti-science designs
  • Scientific Integrity in Policymaking: An Investigation into the Bush Administration's Misuse of Science
  • Scientific Integrity in Policy Making: Further investigation of the Bush administration's abuse of science
  • New Cases of Scientific Abuse by Administration Emerge: Thousands More Scientists Join Protest
  • Suicide by Pseudoscience
• Brain implants 'read' monkey minds. 'Brain implants have been used to "read the minds" of monkeys to predict what they are about to do and even how enthusiastic they are about doing it. It is the first time such high level cognitive brain signals have been decoded and could ultimately lead to more natural thought-activated prosthetic devices for people with paralysis, says Richard Andersen project leader at the California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena, US.'
• MakingTheModernWorld.org.uk.
  • ' Making the Modern World brings you powerful stories about science and invention from the eighteenth century to today. It explains the development and the global spread of modern industrial society and its effects on all our lives. The site expands upon the permanent landmark gallery at the Science Museum, using the Web and dynamic multimedia techniques to go far beyond what a static exhibition can do. '
  • Very nicely done. A lot of Flash elements.
• Talking to Bill [PDF]. Bill Gates talks about the future.

Sex [Assume NSFW]

• Introducing Nerve's First Amateur Video Contest: The John Ashcroft Video Project. I love it!
  
• Advanced-Art.com. Dr. Tom DeWire is a cosmetic plastic surgeon. I'm sure there are other sites on this topic but I stumbled upon this one while surfing. This guy sure knows his breasts.
• AllNudes.blogspot.com. Lots of tasteful nude photography.
• WarOnPornography.com. Bah. Related:
  • Alliance forms to declare new War on Pornography
  • Fleshbot's take
• Sex and Lies: Sex Abuse in Amish Country
  • ' Ruth says she was six -- maybe younger -- when her older brothers, Johnny E. Byler, twenty-six, and Eli E. Byler, twenty-three, first sexually assaulted her. Over the next decade, they raped Ruth more than 200 times in the washrooms, barns and bedrooms of the farmhouses in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania where they lived. At least once, her stepfather, seventy-seven-year-old William Kempf, attacked her as well, knocking her unconscious during an argument. If the abuse was a secret in the family, it wasn't particularly well kept. Some of the Bylers' Wisconsin neighbors blame Ruth's mother, forty-nine-year-old Sally Kempf, for allowing the attacks. According to the La Cross Tribune, Sally once told her daughter, "You don't fight hard enough, and you don't pray hard enough." '
  • Related: AmishAbuse.com
• Wave of outings hits: Congress Angry activists target closeted members, staffers with anti-gay records
  • ' "If you're gay and you support making sexual orientation a political weapon, then your sexual orientation is fair game, and you will be outed to the rafters," Aravosis said. '
  • ' "I asked them how their congressman could justify supporting the FMA knowing that his long-term aide was gay," said Rogers, a former staff member of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force. "Those in public positions who support homophobia or work for someone who supports homophobia can no longer secretly enjoy the protections the gay community has afforded them." '
• The whole sex issue is fucked up in the US. The only places the government should be butting in is where there is potential for harm to themselves or others. Legislation should serve and protect, not make worse or infringe. In that light then:
  • Child abuse: Not OK, they are not of consenting age.
  • Gay marriage: OK.
  • Polygamy: OK, but regulated for safety.
  • Pornography: OK, but regulated for safety (usu. of the actors).
  • Prostitution: OK, but safety laws should be in place.
  • Public Sex: Not OK, there may be kids about.
  • Rape: Not OK, no consent is given.
  • Sex with Animals: Not OK, no consent is given.
• CostOfSex.com. A lame and pessimistic calculator by the lame and pessimistic NoMarriage.com people.
• Penis explodes during sex. Geez, that had to hurt.
• Couple won't pay fine for sex on stage
  • 'The environmental activists who claim they had sex on stage at a live music festival in Norway this week to help protect the world's rain forests say they won't pay fines doled out by police. That means the case will likely head for court.'
  • Very public sex for a good cause. Although possibly half their cause may be to have very public sex. Extremists make me feel so moderate. The couple runs FuckForForest.com
  • 
• A tribute to a lost friend [Flash]. This is funny but some people will definitely find it offensive. Just having a link that plays "The Sound of Silence" is good enough for me.
• Escortland.blogspot.com. Cool! A blog on escorts is very timely since I've been blogging about escorts lately. It is interesting that Googling for "prostitution" yields links for info about prostitution but Googling for "escorts" yields links for escort services.
• Selfellatio.com. I didn't need to see pictures of guys who can blow themselves.
• Showing Barbie Doll's Head on Sex Web Site May Be Fair Use

Show Biz

• Farenheit 9/11
  • I saw this movie on 2004-07-03 Sat. It was the patriotic thing to do on the 4th of July weekend. The movie had been out for a week already but there was still a long line to see the movie and the movie house was full. People say the movie will have no impact but if people watch it, regardless of their political opinions, no one can deny the emotional truth of the movie. Funny is funny, sad is sad, mad is mad. Hopefully the movie will be released on DVD a few weeks before the November election for maximum effect.
  • Related:
    • MichaelMoore.com. The filmmaker's official site.
      • ' Letterman's Top Ten List: Top Ten George W. Bush Complaints About "Fahrenheit 9/11":

        10. That actor who played the President was totally unconvincing

        9. It oversimplified the way I stole the election

        8. Too many of them fancy college-boy words

        7. If Michael Moore had waited a few months, he could have included the part where I get him deported

        6. Didn't have one of them hilarious monkeys who smoke cigarettes and gives people the finger

        5. Of all Michael Moore's accusations, only 97% are true

        4. Not sure - - I passed out after a piece of popcorn lodged in my windpipe

        3. Where the hell was Spider-man?

        2. Couldn't hear most of the movie over Cheney's foul mouth

        1. I thought this was supposed to be about dodgeball.

      • "The World According To Michael: Taking aim at George W., a populist agitator makes noise, news and a new kind of political entertainment". The 2004-07-12 Time article on the movie.
      • Fahrenheit 9/11 Notes + Sources. Notes, references, URLs, by Michael Moore backing up facts in his movie.
    • Unofficial transcript of the movie
    • How Many Mistakes Can Newsweek's Michael Isikoff Make? [2004-07-03]. ' How many mistakes can Michael Isikoff make? In his zealous campaign to discredit Fahrenheit 9/11, Newsweek's star investigative reporter has already made at least seven errors, distortions and selective omissions of crucial information. '
    • How Does the Saudi Relationship With the Bush Family Affect U.S. Foreign Policy?
• Marlon Brando dies at 80 [2004-07-02]. Stella!!!!!! Sweet dreams Godfather.
  
• Xaphoon.com
  • 'Introducing the Maui Xaphoon (pronounced "za foon"), a "Bamboo Sax" for everyone who appreciates awesome sound but doesn't want to schlep around a bulky instrument. The Xaphoon's sound falls somewhere between a saxophone and a clarinet -- a much richer sound than its size would suggest -- and was born to be played wherever and whenever the mood strikes. The experienced player will find the Xaphoon capable of all the subtle shadings and vibrant power of a saxophone. The beginner will find it fun and easy, and good practice for other reed instruments.'
  • I've never heard of a xaphoon, but sound sample they provide sounds pretty nice.
    

Travel

• HillmanWonders.com. 100 wonders of the world. I've only been to a few. Why isn't Krispy Kremes on the list?

US

• Bill Cosby Gets a Little More Off His Chest
  • Cosby telling it to us straight!
  • ' "Let me tell you something, your dirty laundry gets out of school at 2:30 every day, it's cursing and calling each other [racial epithets] as they're walking up and down the street," Cosby said during an appearance at the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition & Citizenship Education Fund's annual conference. "They think they're hip," the entertainer said. "They can't read; they can't write. They're laughing and giggling, and they're going nowhere." '
  • ' Cosby appeared with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, founder and president of the education fund, who defended the entertainer's statements. "Bill is saying let's fight the right fight, let's level the playing field," Jackson said. "Drunk people can't do that. Illiterate people can't do that." '
  • ' Cosby also said many young people are failing to honor the sacrifices made by those who struggled and died during the civil rights movement. "Dogs, water hoses that tear the bark off trees, Emmett Till," he said, naming the black youth who was tortured and murdered in Mississippi in 1955, for allegedly whistling at a white woman. "And you're going to tell me you're going to drop out of school? You're going to tell me you're going to steal from a store?" '
• Lines in the Sand: Supreme Court rulings on enemy combatants, a breakdown [2004-06-29]
  • Related:
    • A blow for freedom [2004-07-06]
      • 'The US supreme court's two rulings that terrorist suspects held at Guantánamo Bay and in America must have access to the US courts are among the most remarkable in the long history of that famous institution. The positive implications for the hundreds of internees held by the US across the world have yet to be clarified but will be immense.'
      • 'In the Hamdi ruling, decided at the same time as the Guantánamo case, the majority of judges saw off the administration's claim to be able to hold "enemy combatant" US citizens indefinitely and without any due process. This time the majority was eight to one'
      • 'Only a patent political lackey on the bench could go as far as the executive demanded, and it is part of the wider ineptitude of the Bush presidency that it forced its friends into such a corner. When only the George Bush Sr-appointee Clarence Thomas is on your side you know you are in deep trouble.'
      • ' The last word deserves to be left with the US supreme court from its judgment on Hamdi delivered by one its most conservative members, Sandra Day O'Connor: "It is during our most challenging and uncertain moments that our nation's commitment to due process is most severely tested; and it is in those times that we must preserve our commitment at home to the principles for which we fight abroad." '
• July Surprise?
  • ' This public pressure would be appropriate, even laudable, had it not been accompanied by an unseemly private insistence that the Pakistanis deliver these high-value targets (HVTs) before Americans go to the polls in November. The Bush administration denies it has geared the war on terrorism to the electoral calendar. "Our attitude and actions have been the same since September 11 in terms of getting high-value targets off the street, and that doesn't change because of an election," says National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack. But The New Republic has learned that Pakistani security officials have been told they must produce HVTs [High by the election. According to one source in Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), "The Pakistani government is really desperate and wants to flush out bin Laden and his associates after the latest pressures from the U.S. administration to deliver before the [upcoming] U.S. elections." Introducing target dates for Al Qaeda captures is a new twist in U.S.-Pakistani counterterrorism relations--according to a recently departed intelligence official, "no timetable[s]" were discussed in 2002 or 2003--but the November election is apparently bringing a new deadline pressure to the hunt. Another official, this one from the Pakistani Interior Ministry, which is responsible for internal security, explains, "The Musharraf government has a history of rescuing the Bush administration. They now want Musharraf to bail them out when they are facing hard times in the coming elections." (These sources insisted on remaining anonymous. Under Pakistan's Official Secrets Act, an official leaking information to the press can be imprisoned for up to ten years.) '
    • Fuck this! We should have had bin Laden by now but Bush is a freak!
  • ' A third source, an official who works under ISI's director, Lieutenant General Ehsan ul-Haq, informed tnr that the Pakistanis "have been told at every level that apprehension or killing of HVTs before [the] election is [an] absolute must." What's more, this source claims that Bush administration officials have told their Pakistani counterparts they have a date in mind for announcing this achievement: "The last ten days of July deadline has been given repeatedly by visitors to Islamabad and during [ul-Haq's] meetings in Washington." Says McCormack: "I'm aware of no such comment." But according to this ISI official, a White House aide told ul-Haq last spring that "it would be best if the arrest or killing of [any] HVT were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July"--the first three days of the Democratic National Convention in Boston. '
• John Titor's US Civil War. The way this administration is going, the upcoming US Civil War, mentioned by supposed time traveler John Titor, is starting to sound plausible.
  • ' There is a civil war in the United States that starts in 2005. That conflict flares up and down for 10 years. In 2015, Russia launches a nuclear strike against the major cities in the United States (which is the "other side" of the civil war from my perspective), China and Europe. The United States counter attacks. The US cities are destroyed along with the AFE (American Federal Empire)...thus we (in the country) won. The European Union and China were also destroyed. Russia is now our largest trading partner and the Capitol of the US was moved to Omaha Nebraska.

    One of the biggest reasons why food production is localized is because the environment is affected with disease and radiation. We are making huge strides in getting it cleaned up. Water is produced on a community level and we do eat meat that we raise ourselves. '

• Transcript: Ridge on Summer Threat
  • Bah. Another FUD warning by Ridge with nothing to back it up.
  • ' We lack precise knowledge about time, place and method of attack but, along with the CIA, FBI and other agencies, we are actively working to gain that knowledge. '
  • Related:
    • Partisan Jab: Ashcroft Fear Remix [see Quicktime Video]. Very funny, I love the out takes from so many sources.
    • Partisan Jab: "Coalition" Remix [see Quicktime Video]. Not quite as funny as the preceding.

US Elections

• Kerry Announces Edwards As Running Mate [2004-07-06 Mon]. Good choice because without Edwards the Self-Made, Bush the Cowboy is currently more marketable than Kerry the Dry. Howard Dean and Hillary Clinton would have been too inflammatory. McCain would have been an excellent choice too but I respect McCain's loyalty.
• Kerry Faces the World: What would a John Kerry foreign policy look like? In some ways a lot like one the current President's father could endorse
• Bush Regime working out Procedures for postponing November Election
  • UN-FUCKING BELIEVABLE. The audacity of this President Bush --he means to steal the Presidential election a second time by any means possible.
  • ' The Bush regime is now working out procedures for postponing the coming November general election. This is totally unprecedented -- even in 1864, in the midst of the Civil War, the Lincoln vs. McClellan presidential contest took place according to the schedule established by the Constitution and relevant statutes. This represents further planning for a cold coup designed to perpetuate the power of the current gaggle of discredited neocon ideologues and their Wall Street backers.'
  • Related:
    • Officials discuss how to delay Election Day
    • Postponing the Election?
      • 'First, some of the news stories I've seen have suggested that a terrorist attack a few days before an election is a sufficient reason to postpone an election. The claim is that the terror attacks in Madrid "influenced" the parliamentary elections in Spain, and we should not allow the same thing to happen here. I think this logic is faulty: What influenced the election was not simply the terror attacks but the government's manner of handling them; at first government officials tried to suggest that Basque separatists and not Islamic terrorists were responsible. This angered many voters, who then sought to teach the government a lesson.'
      • 'Second, it is very important to understand Congress's role in any decision to allow elections to be postponed. There are strong constitutional reasons, whether or not judicially enforceable, for Congress not to allow elections to be postponed or canceled lightly, and certainly not because of a fear that the population will be unduly influenced. We have had regular elections during wartime before, and we have even had regular elections during a Civil War.'
      • 'Third, and finally, there are important structural reasons why the decision to postpone an election should rest in Congress, and should not be delegated to the Executive, as the Office of Homeland Security has recently suggested. The reason is that the Executive focuses decisionmaking in one person who is a member of one political party, while Congress consists of members of both parties representing all different parts of the country.'
• Dems ask that U.N. monitor election
  • ' "Generally, the United Nations does not intervene in electoral affairs unless the request comes from a national government or an electoral authority -- not the legislative branch," said U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe. '
  • ' Besides [Eddie] Johnson [of Texas], Democratic members of Congress signing the letter to Annan were Julia Carson of Indiana; Jerrold Nadler, Edolphus Towns, Joseph Crowley and Carolyn B. Maloney, all of New York; Raul Grijalva of Arizona, Corrine Brown of Florida, Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, Danny K. Davis of Illinois and Michael M. Honda of California.'
  • ' The Democrats said they feared a repeat of the 2000 election, which was won by George Bush, a Republican, through the Electoral College count even though he lost the popular vote.'
  • ' Only $650 million of $3 billion Congress authorized for election reform since 2000 has reached states. On Friday, The Miami Herald reported that more than 2,100 eligible voters still appear on the state's list of purged felons. Many are black Democrats. '
• DrudgeReport.com/kerryk.htm
  • Ha ha! Some homophobic Conservatives are trying to project their hidden homophobic tendencies on to Kerry and Edwards.
  • Related: