Eclectic.
1. Still Got The Blues by Gary Moore
2. What If I Came Knocking by John Mellencamp
3. Red Rain by Peter Gabriel
4. You'll Never Find Another by Lou Rawls
5. Summertime by Janis Joplin
6. Beethoven: Moonlight Sonata by Passport Music
7. Time Is Tight by Booker T. & the M,G.s
8. I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight by Boyce & Hart
9. Show and Tell by Al Wilson
10. Sundown by Gordon Lightfoot
How to Shower Like a WomanThis is nice but I would rather have lower monthly charges. I'm no longer under contract, I can switch if I want to, but why?
Take off clothing and place it in sectioned laundry hamper according to lights and darks.
Walk to bathroom wearing long dressing gown.
If you see husband along the way, cover up any exposed areas.
Look at your womanly physique in the mirror - make mental note to do more sit-ups/leg-lifts, etc.
Get in the shower. Use face cloth, arm cloth, leg cloth, long loofah wide loofah and pumice stone.
Wash your hair once with cucumber and sage shampoo with 43 added vitamins.
Wash your hair again to make sure it's clean.
Condition your hair with grapefruit mint conditioner
Wash your face with crushed apricot facial scrub for 10 minutes until red.
Wash entire rest of body with ginger nut and jaffa cake body wash.
Rinse conditioner off hair.
Shave armpits and legs.
Turn off shower.
Squeegee off all wet surfaces in shower!
Spray mold spots with Tilex.
Get out of shower.
Dry with towel the size of a small country.
Wrap hair in super absorbent towel.
Return to bedroom wearing long dressing gown and towel on head. If you see husband along the way, cover up any exposed areas.
How To Shower Like a Man
Take off clothes while sitting on the edge of the bed and leave them in a pile.
Walk naked to the bathroom.
If you see wife along the way, shake wiener at her making the 'woo-woo' sound.
Look at your manly physique in the mirror.
Admire the size of your wiener and scratch your butt.
Get in the shower. Wash your face. Wash your armpits.
Blow your nose in your hands and let the water rinse them off.
Fart and laugh at how loud it sounds in the shower.
Spend majority of time washing privates and surrounding area.
Wash your butt, leaving those coarse butt hairs stuck on the soap.
Wash your hair. Make a Shampoo Mohawk. Pee.
Rinse off and get out of shower.
Partially dry off.
Fail to notice water on floor because curtain was hanging out of tub the whole time.
Admire wiener size in mirror again.
Leave shower curtain open, wet mat on floor, light and fan on.
Return to bedroom with towel around waist.
If you pass wife, pull off towel, shake wiener at her and make the woo-woo' sound again.
Throw wet towel on bed.
USATODAY.com - 'Potter' doomsday approaches, but for whom?: "Who will live, who will die? That's the question after J.K. Rowling suggested this week that she will kill off two main characters in the final Harry Potter installment. Could Harry be a victim? USA TODAY asked webmasters for two Potter fan websites who's most likely to perish in Book 7."Ah yes, it's Harry Potter time. Whenever the book comes out we will be standing in line to get our copy. Mom loves the series, she has reread it three times, and really wants to know how it ends.
Rush Limbaugh Under New Investigation: "Limbaugh was detained for more than three hours Monday at the airport after returning from a vacation in the Dominican Republic. Customs officials found the Viagra in his luggage but his name was not on the prescription, said Paul Miller, a spokesman for the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office."If he had been as smart as he says he is he would have taken just a few with him and disposed of whatever was left over. This would actually be a non-story except for his stupidity and hubris.
TIME.com: If Your Bra Doesn't Fit, Go Shopping -- Page 1: "Twenty years after the WonderBra caused small-breasted women to stampede, the boob pendulum is apparently swinging back. The average size of the American breast has grown from 34B to 36C , according to manufacturers. Anecdotally, the growth might be even more breathtaking: Those style-section stories are full of women who can't face the fact that they are, they really and truly are, a D. 'Some women have gotten angry when I tell them they're a D-cup. They think that's huge,' said a bra fitter in one of those upteenth style stories.And I'm so bored I'm playing into the program. We all know my views on the subject. Smaller is better and I have the scars (minimal) to prove it.
Women's unwillingness to take their bosom by the reins could stem from an unwillingness to celebrate one's sexuality, at least as it is defined by the D cup stereotype — does anyone over 30 want to be the Hooters girl, as it were? It could be that we're slightly afraid of our boobs— after all, over time they do seem to develop a mind of their own — or it could be we don't like what larger-than-average (though not that much larger than average) breasts invite: attention, whistles, shade."
This tunnel in Russia is the longest in-city tunnel of Europe. There is a river running over it and water leaks at some points. When the temperature reaches -38 degrees like it did this winter, the road freezes and the result is the attached video taken during a single day with the tunnel camera.Glad I wasn't there.
Congratulations to the articulated bus driver .... This is better than turn 4 at Daytona.
Military Fails Some Widows Over Benefits - New York Times: "While the process runs smoothly for many widows, for others it is characterized by lost files, long delays, an avalanche of paperwork, misinformation and gaps in the patchwork of laws governing survivor benefits.Ya think? I read this next part and really started twitching. How can you not know the soldier is in Iraq? Where did they think he was?
Sometimes it is simply the Pentagon's massive bureaucracy that poses the problem. In other cases, laws exclude widows whose husbands died too early in the war or were killed in training rather than in combat. The result is that scores of families — it is impossible to know how many — lose out on money and benefits that they expected to receive or believed they were owed, say widows, advocates and legislators.
'Why do we want to draw arbitrary and capricious lines that exclude widows?' asked Senator Mike DeWine, an Ohio Republican, who has sponsored legislation to close some of the legal loopholes that penalize widows. 'It seems to me we ought to err on the side of compassion for families.'
Nearly a year later, Mrs. Youngblood, 27, is still trying to persuade the Navy that the military's accounting department lost her husband's 2004 insurance form naming her and her son as co-beneficiaries, along with the rest of his pre-deployment paperwork. The only forms the Navy can find are from 2003, listing an old address for her husband, Travis, an incorrect rank and no dependents.How do you lose your own troops? Who's running this outfit? Billy Bob and his boy Darryl?
The military paperwork was in such disarray, Mrs. Youngblood said, that her husband went months without combat pay and family separation pay because the defense accounting service did not realize he was in Iraq, where he was detached to a Marine Corps unit.
Hundreds of widows are denied thousands of dollars in benefits because of arbitrary cut-off dates in the law. The family of a soldier who was killed in October 2003 receives less money than the family of a soldier who was killed in October 2005. "It is shameful that the government and Congress do not deliver the survivor benefits equally to all our widows with the same compassion and precision the military presents the folded flag at the grave," said Edie Smith, a leader of the Gold Star Wives of America, a group of 10,000 military widows that lobbies Congress and the Pentagon.I think I'm going to have to get medication for this twitch. As the dependant of a retired Air Force Sergeant, the sister of a Navy Lt, and a Vietnam Veteran myself, let me say that I am angered and ashamed by this report. I find it hard to believe that my country would ask these people, and in many cases forced them, to give the ultimate sacrifice and we still can't compensate their families in a timely and adequate manner. Despicable.
Shauna Moore was tending to her newborn, Hannah, on Feb. 21, 2003, when she learned that her husband, Sgt. Benjamin Moore, 25, had been shot during a rifle training exercise at Fort Hood, Tex. Months later, after her grief began to subside, she noticed that she was not entitled to the same retirement benefits as more recent widows with children."
Playing Politics With Iraq - New York Times: "'Withdrawal is not an option,' declared the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, who sounded like an actor trying on personas that ranged from Barry Goldwater to General Patton. 'Surrender,' said the bellicose Mr. Frist, 'is not a solution.'One person's coincidence is another's plan. These guys are like the Wicked Witch of the West, doing everything they can to stave off the inevitable. Which in their case means being replaced by candidates who listen to the people who elect them and not the highest bidder.
Any talk about bringing home the troops, in the Senate majority leader's view, was 'dangerous, reckless and shameless.'
But then on Sunday we learned that the president's own point man in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, had fashioned the very thing that ol' blood-and-guts Frist and his C-Span brigade had ranted against: a withdrawal plan.
Are Karl Rove and his liege lord, the bait-and-switch king, trying to have it both ways? You bet. And that ought to be a crime, because there are real lives at stake.
The first significant cut under General Casey's plan, according to an article by Michael Gordon in yesterday's Times, would occur in September. That, of course, would be perfect timing for Republicans campaigning for re-election in November. How's that for a coincidence?"
How many casualties will be enough? More than 2,500 American troops who dutifully answered President Bush's call to wage war in Iraq have already perished, and thousands more are struggling in agony with bodies that have been torn or blown apart and psyches that have been permanently wounded.What? And be responsible for their actions? Surely you jest. For guys who talk about an ownership society, they don't want to accept responsiblity for anything when they screw up and things don't go their way. That's what "cut and run" really means.
Has the war been worth their sacrifice?
How many still have to die before we reach a consensus that we've overpaid for Mr. Bush's mad adventure? Will 5,000 American deaths be enough? Ten thousand?
{snip}
We've had enough clownish debates on the Senate floor and elsewhere. We've had enough muscle-flexing in the White House and on Capitol Hill by guys who ran and hid when they were young and their country was at war. And it's time to stop using generals and their forces under fire in the field for cheap partisan political purposes.
FORTUNE Magazine: Warren Buffett gives away his fortune - Jun. 25, 2006: "This news was indeed stunning. Buffett, 75, has for decades said his wealth would go to philanthropy but has just as steadily indicated the handoff would be made at his death. Now he was revising the timetable.At least it is a good cause.
'I know what I want to do,' he said, 'and it makes sense to get going.' On that spring day his plan was uncertain in some of its details; today it is essentially complete. And it is typical Buffett: rational, original, breaking the mold of how extremely rich people donate money.
Buffett has pledged to gradually give 85% of his Berkshire stock to five foundations. A dominant five-sixths of the shares will go to the world's largest philanthropic organization, the $30 billion Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, whose principals are close friends of Buffett's (a connection that began in 1991, when a mutual friend introduced Buffett and Bill Gates).
The Gateses credit Buffett, says Bill, with having 'inspired' their thinking about giving money back to society. Their foundation's activities, internationally famous, are focused on world health -- fighting such diseases as malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis -- and on improving U.S. libraries and high schools."
Respect Must Be Paid - New York Times: "The Keyboard Kingpin, a k a Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, sits at his computer, fires up his Web site, Daily Kos, and commands his followers, who come across like squadrons of rabid lambs, to unleash their venom on those who stand in the way. And in this way the Kingpin has made himself a mighty force in his own mind, and every knee shall bow."In the beginning I went to DailyKos several times a day. After the election, I was too depressed and now that all the good writers have moved on, I hardly ever check in. While I may find Kos as insufferably arrogant as some members of my family, I would never resort to such a childish display (for the whole world to read) of my ignorance.
But lo, there are doubters. Chris Suellentrop, who writes the Opinionator column on TimesSelect, posted an item on June 16 noting the strange correlation between Armstrong contracts and Kos endorsements. He further reported that the S.E.C. has filed court documents alleging that in 2000 Armstrong touted a dubious software stock on a Web site in exchange for secret payments. Armstrong was accused of building Internet buzz to make money for himself.Ooh, bad boy coming up with a great idea. Sounds just like normal people's reaction to the blonde harpy (she who should not be named, the little fragmeister). No, I wasn't on the list of people he sent a private letter to. And that's okay, because I am capable of doing my own thinking and drawing my own conclusions. Considering everything else that is going on in the world, a missive from a mortal being (TTLB) doesn't make me snap to attention. Nor does it make me sit weeping in a corner because I'm not invited to the party of the year.
The Keyboard Kingpin was displeased by this publicity.
But the Sachem of the Blogosphere restrained his mighty wrath and responded with the cleverness for which he is so justly self-adored. In a private letter to hundreds of his fellow progressive bloggers, the Kingpin declared he would "go on the offensive" in a "couple of months," but in the meantime, a code of omertà was in order. "It would make my life easier if we can confine the story," he wrote. "If any of us blog on this right now, we fuel the story. Let's starve it of oxygen."
The Road From K Street to Yusufiya - New York Times: "Privates Tucker and Menchaca made the ultimate sacrifice. Their bodies were so mutilated that they could be identified only by DNA. Mr. Safavian, by contrast, can be readily identified by smell. His idea of wartime sacrifice overseas was to chew over government business with the Jack Abramoff gang while on a golfing junket in Scotland. But what's most indicative of Mr. Safavian's public service is not his felonies in the Abramoff-Tom DeLay axis of scandal, but his legal activities before his arrest. In his DNA you get a snapshot of the governmental philosophy that has guided the war effort both in Iraq and at home (that would be the Department of Homeland Security) and doomed it to failure.They don't care about the soldiers, they don't care about the citizens, of either country. It is all about the benjamins. Or whoever it is on the $1000 bill. A hundred just doesn't mean what it used to. Anyone can have one.
Mr. Safavian, a former lobbyist, had a hand in federal spending, first as chief of staff of the General Services Administration and then as the White House's chief procurement officer, overseeing a kitty of some $300 billion (plus $62 billion designated for Katrina relief). He arrived to help enforce a Bush management initiative called 'competitive sourcing.' Simply put, this was a plan to outsource as much of government as possible by forcing federal agencies to compete with private contractors and their K Street lobbyists for huge and lucrative assignments. The initiative's objective, as the C.E.O. administration officially put it, was to deliver 'high-quality services to our citizens at the lowest cost.'
The result was low-quality services at high cost: the creation of a shadow government of private companies rife with both incompetence and corruption.
{snip}
Washington's promises to rebuild Iraq were worth no more than its promises to rebuild New Orleans. The government that has stranded a multitude of Americans in flimsy "housing" on the gulf, where they remain prey for any new natural attacks the hurricane season will bring, is of a philosophical and operational piece with the government that has let down the Iraqi people. Even after we've thrown away some $2 billion of a budgeted $4 billion on improving electricity, many Iraqis have only a few hours of power a day, less than they did under Saddam. At his Rose Garden press conference of June 14, the first American president with an M.B.A. claimed that yet another new set of "benchmarks" would somehow bring progress even after all his previous benchmarks had failed to impede three years of reconstruction catastrophes.
Of the favored companies put in charge of our supposed good works in Iraq, Halliburton is the most notorious. But it is hardly unique. As The Los Angeles Times reported in April, it is the Parsons Corporation that is responsible for the "wholesale failure in two of the most crucial areas of the Iraq reconstruction — health and safety — which were supposed to win Iraqi good will and reduce the threat to American soldiers.
Parsons finished only 20 of 150 planned Iraq health clinics, somehow spending $60 million of the budgeted $186 million for its own management and administration. It failed to build walls around 7 of the 17 security forts it constructed to supposedly stop the flow of terrorists across the Iran border.""
Looks happy doesn't she? The yuck factor is waaay too high for me.
Chertoff says homeland security no '24' - TELEVISION - MSNBC.com: "And so it went in the surreal meeting of Hollywood and Washington, sponsored by the Heritage Foundation think tank, about America's image in the war on terror. The audience included Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, Ginny, in the front row.Oh yeah, like The Agency and Threat Matrix (disappeared faster than Osama been Forgotten) were big hits and they were scheduled around 9/11. The Agency was a little closer to the truth than 24 but not as much bloodshed or great one liners.
The star of '24,' Kiefer Sutherland — that's agent Jack Bauer — wasn't there.
In one parallel between Homeland Security and the show, Chertoff spoke of the challenges in 'trying to make the best choice with a series of bad options.'
Characters on '24' constantly face situations 'where there is no clear magic bullet to solve the problem, and you have to weigh the cost benefits of a series of unpalatable alternatives,' he said.
'That is what we do every day.'
Limbaugh peppered the panel over whether '24' influences public perceptions about counterterrorism, and whether the actors are snubbed by Hollywood liberals for participating in what Limbaugh called a 'pro-America show.'
Gregory Itzin, who plays the nefarious President Charles Logan, said he has had to defend himself from one or two people 'about the fact that the show does have torture issues and how could I live with that.'
'It's a show!' he said. 'I've done Shakespeare and have killed people with a sword.'
Later, Limbaugh went back to the program's creation, saying: 'You got lucky with 9/11 happening shortly after the show started." He quickly stopped himself, saying: "Sorry — not got lucky — bad choice of words.' At another point, he offered a story line for a political cameo: Democratic Rep. John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, a tough critic of the Bush administration's Iraq policy, as 'head of the new KGB.'"
The hapless homeland security chief could snatch more money away from American locales most likely to be hit by Al Qaeda. Or let another wonderful city fall into a watery abyss. Or go on TV and help cable news hype the saga of the Miami gang of terrorist wannabes who look like they couldn't find the local Sears, let alone the Sears Tower.It makes me wonder if the theme song for this administration is "A Rock and Roll Fantasy" since they aren't dealing in reality.
These guys were so lame they asked an informant for boots, radios, binoculars, uniforms and cash, believing he was Al Qaeda — and that jihadists need uniforms.
Instead, the cadaverous Chertoff was gallivanting on stage yesterday morning with some fictional counterterrorism experts from "24." The producers, writer and three actors from the Fox show appeared at an event sponsored by the Heritage Foundation, at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.
{...}
Lulled by our spy thrillers and Tom Clancy novels, we used to take for granted that our intelligence agencies were just as capable as heroes on the screen. Jack Ryan, either the Harrison Ford, the Alec Baldwin or even the Ben Affleck version, could have gotten Osama single-handedly in the two hours allotted.
{...}
On the homeland security set, Mr. Chertoff, flanked by the actors who play the beautiful technogeek Chloe and President Logan, seemed a little fuzzy about whether the fancy technology on "24" exists.
He noted, "One thing you don't see on '24' is when the computer's crashing and having to get the I.T. people to come in to reboot and get the computer working again." Given that the F.B.I. is struggling to get a computer system that can simultaneously search for "flight" and "schools," his answer was not all that funny.
The Engineer Online - [News: engineering news, engineering info, latest technology, manufacturing news, manufacturing info, automotive news, aerospace news, materials news, research & development]: "The technology, dubbed Embedded and Communicating Agents, has allowed researchers at Sony’s Computer Science Laboratory in France to add a new level of intelligence to the AIBO dog. Instead of teaching the dog new tricks, the algorithms, design principles and mechanisms developed by the project allow the robotic pet to learn new tricks itself and share its knowledge with others.If you model them after children don't be surprised when they rebel. Great, now we are on our way to the Clone Wars, because you know there is a mad scientist somewhere with the idea that he can improve the human race. Probably in a small room at the Department of Defense. Using bad genes provided by Karl Rove in an effort to make himself immoral, I mean immortal.
“What has been achieved at Sony shows that the technology gives the robot the ability to develop its own language with which to describe its environment and interact with other AIBOs. It sees a ball and it can tell another one where the ball is, if it’s moving and what colour it is, and the other is capable of recognising it,” Nolfi said.
The most important aspect is how it learns to communicate and interact. Whereas we humans use the word ‘ball’ to refer to a ball, the AIBO dogs start from scratch to develop common agreement on a word to use to refer the ball. They also develop the language structures to express, for instance, that the ball is rolling to the left. The researchers achieved this through instilling their robots with a sense of ‘curiosity.’
Initially programmed to merely recognise stimuli from their sensors, the AIBOs learnt to distinguish between objects and how to interact with them over the course of several hours or days. The curiosity system, or ‘metabrain,’ continually forced the AIBOs to look for new and more challenging tasks, and to give up on activities that did not appear to lead anywhere. This in turn led them to learn how to perform more complex tasks, an indication of an open-ended learning capability much like that of human children.
Also like children, the AIBOs initially started babbling aimlessly until two or more settled on a sound to describe an object or aspect of their environment, gradually building a lexicon and grammatical rules through which to communicate."
Social Isolation Growing in U.S., Study Says: "Compared with 1985, nearly 50 percent more people in 2004 reported that their spouse is the only person they can confide in. But if people face trouble in that relationship, or if a spouse falls sick, that means these people have no one to turn to for help, Smith-Lovin said.No wonder civil discussions have disappeared. As people become more isolated there is less compassion and empathy with increasing intolerance of other people's viewpoints, which helps to explain the current political climate.
'We know these close ties are what people depend on in bad times,' she said. 'We're not saying people are completely isolated. They may have 600 friends on Facebook.com [a popular networking Web site] and e-mail 25 people a day, but they are not discussing matters that are personally important.'
{...}
Whereas nearly three-quarters of people in 1985 reported they had a friend in whom they could confide, only half in 2004 said they could count on such support. The number of people who said they counted a neighbor as a confidant dropped by more than half, from about 19 percent to about 8 percent.
{...}
Americans go on 60 percent fewer picnics today and families eat dinner together 40 percent less often compared with 1965, he said. They are less likely to meet at clubs or go bowling in groups. Putnam has estimated that every 10-minute increase in commutes makes it 10 percent less likely that people will establish and maintain close social ties."
America in 2026 - New York Times: "'What kind of America do we want — not just today, but 20 years from now? And how do we think we can get there from here?'Me too. Why, oh why can't more politicians speak up? Our country is being guided down the river Styx by Darth Cheney as Charon, with Bush, Rumsfeld and Rove appearing as Cerebrus. Makes me shudder to think we are on the sixth lap of nine. Please let me wake from this crazy dream (it was playing on the radio).
It's a speech that's different from the poll-tested, freeze-dried political pap we've come to expect from politicians. For one thing, Mr. Edwards, who's part of the growing pack of Democratic marathoners seeking the party's 2008 nomination, wrote it himself. For another, he unfashionably (and unabashedly) appeals to the better angels of the electorate.
'It's wrong,' he says, 'to have 37 million Americans living in poverty, separated from the opportunities of this country by their income, their housing, their access to education and jobs and health care — just as it was wrong that we once lived in a country legally separated by race.'
In an echo of the can-do spirit that was characteristic of the post-World War II period, Mr. Edwards asserts that with the proper leadership, the United States can 'restore the moral core and legitimacy that has been the foundation of our influence' abroad, while at the same time tackling tough issues here at home: poverty, the need for greater energy independence and a fairer shake for all Americans who have to work for a living, including 'the forgotten middle class.'
{sniip}
He says, at the top of the speech, that 'our military power is fortunately strong, and we must keep it that way.' But he also says, 'I want to live in an America that has not sacrificed individual liberties in the name of freedom; where, in the fight to preserve the country we love, we do not sacrifice the country we love; where we don't make excuses for violating civil rights, though we understand that the test of liberty is in the moments when such excesses almost sound reasonable.'"
ABC News: The Older We Get, the Happier We Are: "Wisdom May Bring ContentmentChinese medicine believes that as you age your sexual energy decreases and becomes wisdom, which enables you to take life in a more measured fashion. It is hard for most people to understand that you will never be happy as long as you think you will and you will never be sad as long as you think you will. Time really does heal all wounds, if you let it. Life is a cycle and the more you recognize the revolutions, the easier it is to deal.
Why?
Lots of reasons, Ubel says, but near the top of the list is the simple fact that as we stumble through life, we somehow get better at it. Living, that is, not stumbling.
'I think we really do get wiser,' he says. 'And I think that really does improve our emotions.'
But of course, life is a gamble, and we don't all start with the same deck of cards. Some people just seem to be born 'with a smile on their face,' as Ubel puts it. Other little bodies seem to come with a frown."
At about 5 1/2 inches across and 2 1/2 inches thick, the mound of meat is comprised of beef from three continents American prime beef, Japanese Kobe and Argentine cattle.I would rather eat sushi and drink cold sake for that amount, much healthier. Speaking of fish, I love almost every one except salmon and mackerel. Salmon tastes muddy and mackerel tastes fishy. There are many other fish in the sea. Now, I personally like tomatoes but the site tomatoes are evil has persuasive arguments on why you shoud avoid this tasty nightshade. Barbecue season is in full swing. If you want to know why and how to cook your meat instead of a straight recipe, go here. This sounds like a great variation of fried chicken. If you feel the need for a refreshing alcholic beverage, there is the Cuke. Definitely an interesting choice of ingredients. I might try it.
The bill for one burger, with garnishing that includes organic greens, exotic mushrooms and tomatoes, comes out to $124.50 with tax and an 18 percent tip included. The restaurant will donate $10 from each sale to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
LIE AND DIE
The Democrats' exasperation has increased in the last week, as they postponed a vote on Mr. Kerry's amendment to try to fashion a broader consensus among themselves. Democrats up for re-election asked him not to propose a fixed date. But Mr. Kerry, several Democrats said, was unwilling to budge from that idea, even though his co-sponsor, Senator Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin, seemed willing to compromise for the sake of consensus. In the end, Mr. Kerry agreed only to extend his deadline, from Dec. 31 of this year to July 2007.As opposed to sorta, kinda, maybe soon, we'll get back to you, let's do lunch kinda plan? I say again, once you decide to leave what is stopping you from doing it immediately? It doesn't matter when we do it, I still see helicopters hovered over buildings taking as many people as possible before it's too late. Something about not getting involved in a land war in Asia.
Mr. Kerry's insistence on pushing ahead with his own plan has left the Democrats divided, and open to renewed Republican accusations that they are indecisive and weak — the same ridicule that Republicans heaped on Mr. Kerry in 2004, when his "I was for it before I was against it" statement about a vote on money for the war became a punch line.
"There are certain Democrats who think that this is over, that we've lost or that there's nothing constructive the president is going to do," said Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, who, like Mr. Kerry, is considering running for president and who sat in on the meetings where Democrats searched for consensus. "What it really is, in fairness to them, is a frustration that they see no learning curve on the part of this administration. I can understand that frustration. But setting a date is not a plan."
Saks Restores Petite Sizes After Outcry - New York Times: "Saks said that petite sizes would be carried in 32 of its 55 stores in November and that it would hold trunk shows around the country in October to welcome the petite clients back.And it is going to work out even better because we will get more of a choice. Once Wal-Mart realizes short people exist we will be covered at both ends of the financial spectrum. Sometimes when you blog about something, changes are made.
Andrew Jennings, president of Saks, said that the retailer 'had heard loud and clear the expression of concern from shoppers' about the elimination of the petite department.
Saks scrapped petite sizes, which generated $35 million a year, in January because it found that many shoppers preferred to buy clothes in the misses department — which is larger and offers a wider variety of fashions — and have garments tailored to fit their smaller proportions.
This time around, the retailer will try to inject more energy in petite clothes, emphasizing sportswear, knitwear and day dresses, rather than focusing heavily on classic-looking suits for work.
'In the past, the petite assortment has been very suited and very classic in nature, not really addressing the lifestyle needs of the customer,' said Joseph Boitano, senior vice president and general merchandise manager for women's clothing at Saks."
Every year, English teachers from across the country can submit their collections of actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays. These excerpts are published each year to the amusement of teachers across the country. Here are last year's winners.....I hope these made you smile.
1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.
2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.
5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.
8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.
9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.
10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.
11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p. m. instead of 7:30.
12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.
13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.
15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.
16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River.
18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.
19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.
20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.
21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.
22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.
25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.
Culpability Deficit Disorder: "This drug for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is sorely needed. ADHD explains why few seem to challenge the call to continue the mission in Iraq, apparently forgetting that the mission has changed and no one is quite sure what it is now. It explains why after just 100 hours the first President Bush concluded the Persian Gulf War with Saddam Hussein still in power and his helicopters slaughtering rebellious Shiites and Kurds. And it explains why the Carter, Reagan and first Bush administrations so ardently supported Hussein and then -- an administration later -- made it U.S. policy to topple him. We were always forgetting the kind of guy he was.Which is why I refer to him as Osama been Forgotten. Has anyone in this country considered the thought that he is laughing at us? At our hubris and incompetence? Our hubris in believing that we could force democracy on the world and our incompetence at achieving said goal? Exactly how have we made our country safer since 9/11, found the people responsible and brought them to justice, increased the standard of living for the people who make less than $100,000 in the United States, improved the lives of the Iraqi people, or engendered good will throughout the world? Short answer is that we haven't. We haven't accomplished a single goal except to prevent two people who love each other from getting married and to make it harder for a citizen in financial straits to get back on their feet. What a track record.
ADHD also explains why we are still fighting in Afghanistan almost five years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that launched the war against the Taliban. It's because our attention got diverted from the Afghanistan-based al-Qaeda, which had attacked us, to Iraq, which had not. Take two pills for this one.
{snip}
The first rule of warfare is kill your enemy -- or make sure, in some way, that he can no longer do you any damage. The first Bush administration ignored that rule with Saddam Hussein and now the second one has ignored it with Osama bin Laden. It allowed this mass murderer to escape, and he will come back to haunt us; it is what he lives for. Bin Laden does not suffer from ADHD."
Apple to sell movies on iTunes by end of year - report - MarketWatch: "Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) is gearing up to sell movies on its popular iTunes Web site, according to a published report.I have Netflix, why would I want to add to my entertainment bill? Between cable and internet charges, I wouldn't want to pay more, entertainment should be cheaper. Plus, how is net neutrality going to affect this idea? In the time it takes to download the movie you could actually go to the theatre.
A report in Variety, citing numerous sources, reported that Apple could start selling movies on iTunes by the end of the year.
According to the report, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs is personally handling the negotiations, and had proposed selling films at a flat rate of $9.99.
The report noted that studio executives balked at a flat-rate pricing model, given they would want to charge more for popular movies.
Officials at Apple weren't immediately available to comment on the Variety report."
Zoellick to resign from State Department - - MSNBC.com: "Zoellick, who served six years in the Bush administration, will join the investment house Goldman Sachs Group Inc., said a senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made.Taking his marbles and off to make scads of money, just like everyone else. Hopefully he will do a better job at Goldman Sachs than he did at State.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was expected to make the announcement later Monday.
Zoellick, 52, a former U.S. trade representative, reportedly wanted to be promoted to treasury secretary to replace departing secretary John Snow, but President Bush nominated Goldman Sachs executive Henry Paulson instead."
He has been the administration's leading diplomat handling the volatile situation in Sudan's western Darfur region, where at least 180,000 have died since villagers began an uprising in 2003.Running off and leaving two jobs half done because he didn't get the promotion he wanted, not that he was doing such a great job at either. Maybe that was the reason for being passed over.
Zoellick has also been the State Department's chief diplomat dealing with China.
'Wash Post' Obtains Shocking Memo from U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Details Increasing Danger and Hardship: "Sounds like New Orleans, except more gunfire and bombings and not so much water damage. The haves get more and the have nots, don't.
--Embassy employees are held in such low esteem their work must remain a secret and they live with constant fear that their cover will be blown. Of nine staffers, only four have told their families where they work. They all plan for their possible abductions. No one takes home their cell phones as this gives them away. One employee said criticism of the U.S. had grown so severe that most of her family believes the U.S. 'is punishing populations as Saddam did.'
--Since April, the 'demeanor' of guards in the Green Zone has changed, becoming more 'militia-like,' and some are now 'taunting' embassy personnel or holding up their credentials and saying loudly that they work in the embassy: 'Such information is a death sentence if overheard by the wrong people.' For this reason, some have asked for press instead of embassy credentials.
-- 'For at least six months, we have not been able to use any local staff members for translation at on-camera press events....We cannot call employees in on weekends or holidays without blowing their 'cover.''
--'More recently, we have begun shredding documents printed out that show local staff surnames. In March, a few staff members approached us to ask what provisions would we make for them if we evacuate.'
--The overall enviroment is one of 'frayed social networks,' with frequent actual or perceived insults. None of this is helped by lack of electricity. 'One colleague told us he feels 'defeated' by circumstances, citing his example of being unable to help his two-year-old son who has asthma and cannot sleep in stiflng heat,' which is now reaching 115 degrees.
--'Another employee tell us that life outside the Green Zone has become 'emotionally draining.' He lives in a mostly Shiite area and claims to attend a funeral 'every evening.''
--Fuel lines have grown so long that one staffer spent 12 hours in line on his day off. "Employees all confirm that by the last week of May, they were getting one hour of power for every six hours without.....One staff member reported that a friend lives in a building that houses a new minister; within 24 hours of his appointment, her building had city power 24 hours a day."
The Weaker Sex - New York Times: "Men's troubles begin during the earliest days in the womb. Even though there are more male than female embryos, there are more miscarriages of male fetuses. Industrial countries are also witnessing a decline in male to female birth ratios, and we don't know why.The poor widdle babies. This is an old story. In the late 60's early 70's, Playboy did a six month series on the differences between men and women and concluded that women were better suited for survival. Actually they said that women were the superior of the species but it is 30 years later and women are still fighting to control their own bodies.
Some scientists have argued that the probability of a male child declines as parents (especially fathers) age. Still others have cited the prevalence of pesticides, which produce more birth defects in male children.
Even when a boy manages to be born, he's still behind the survival eight ball: he is three to four times more likely than girls to have developmental disorders like autism and dyslexia; girls learn language earlier, develop richer vocabularies and even hear better than boys. Girls demonstrate insight and judgment earlier in adolescence than boys, who are more impulsive and take more risks than their sisters. Teenage boys are more likely to commit suicide than girls and are more likely to die violent deaths before adulthood.
As adults, too, men die earlier than women. Twice as many men as women die of coronary artery disease, which manifests itself a decade earlier in men than women; when it comes to cancer, the news for men is almost as bad. Women also have more vigorous immune systems than men: of the 10 most common infections, men are more likely to have serious encounters with seven of them."
Karl Rove Beats the Democrats Again - New York Times: "Given our government's preference for spectacle over substance, 'Baghdad Surprise 2' was more meticulously planned than security for post-liberation Baghdad. The script was a montage of the administration's greatest hits.With his trusty mentor/sidekick, Karl Rove.
As with the prototype of Thanksgiving 2003, there was a breathless blow-by-blow of how President Bush faked out his own cabinet, donned a baseball cap and slipped into his waiting plane. In cautious remembrance of 'Top Gun,' White House photos were disseminated of the fearless leader hovering in the cockpit. Once on the ground, Mr. Bush made much of looking into the eyes of Nuri al-Maliki, our third post-Saddam Iraqi leader, and finding him as worthy as he did Vladimir Putin after a similarly theatrical ocular X-ray. This bit of presidential shtick is now as polished as Johnny Carson's old burlesque psychic, Carnac the Magnificent.
But not every sequel is as satisfying as 'Spider-Man 2.' This time, the plot holes in the triumphal narrative were too obvious. Since Thanksgiving 2003, the number of American troops in Iraq has gone up and casualties have increased more than fivefold. With Italy and South Korea leading the bailout, the 'coalition of the willing' is wilting. (Rest assured that Moldova and El Salvador are hanging in.) Iraq security is such that Mr. Bush could stay only six hours, all in the Green Zone bunker. The presidential diagnosis of Mr. Maliki's trustworthiness was contradicted by the White House decision to keep the visit a secret from him until the last minute. How big a dis is that? Even the Americans the administration distrusts most — journalists — were told a day in advance."Isn't it dangerous over there?
Americans pick Iraq as the most pressing national issue, 21 points ahead of immigration, the runner-up. They find the war so dispiriting that the networks spend less and less time covering it. Had the much-hyped Alberto roused itself from tropical storm to hurricane, Mr. Bush's Baghdad jaunt would have been bumped for the surefire Nielsen boost of tempest-tossed male anchors emoting in the great outdoors.That's what I'm saying. Heaven forbid that a strong breeze should hit today's Democrat. They act more like willow trees in a strong wind than a mighty oak standing tall in a storm. Find a position and stick with it or quit and let someone with a spine fight the battle.
All of which makes it stupendously counterintuitive that the Republican campaign strategy for 2006 is to run on the war. But there was Karl Rove, freshly released from legal jeopardy, proposing exactly that in a speech just before the president's trip. In a drive-by Swift Boating, he portrayed John Kerry and John Murtha, two decorated Vietnam veterans calling for an expedited exit from Iraq, as cowards who exemplify their party's "old pattern of cutting and running."
{snip}
Those who are most enraged about the administration's reckless misadventures are incredulous that it repeatedly gets away with the same stunts. Last week the president was still invoking 9/11 to justify the war in Iraq, which he again conflated with the war on Islamic jihadism — the war we are now losing, by the way, in Afghanistan and Somalia. But as long as the Democrats keep repeating their own mistakes, they will lose to the party whose mistakes are, if nothing else, packaged as one heckuva show. It's better to have the courage of bad convictions than no courage or convictions at all.
"Don't get me wrong," she told me. "I'm grateful that we're here -- there are families worse off than we are." But, she added, she can't let her children go outside because there is no safe or even reasonably clean place to play; the nearby park, popular with drug dealers, is littered with broken glass; the sound of gunshots punctuates the nights; and the psychotic man who lives a few doors down has a habit of banging on her door at all hours. Recently sewage backed up into her trailer, soaking the entire floor. She had to wash everything, which -- given that laundromat prices have more than doubled since the storms -- constituted a financial stretch. "We're middle-class poor people," she said.Exactly what is this cottage and why haven't we heard more about it?
She's not alone. Across the state, more than 200,000 people are living in trailers or unfinished houses, many still in tents in the front yards of their ravaged New Orleans homes, without insurance, health care, access to decent public schools or, in many cases, jobs. In fact, so many people are desperate to make their homes livable that FEMA is still delivering trailers to the New Orleans area. To date there are some 70,000 FEMA trailers in some 60 villages in Louisiana alone, with additional trailers parked in yards. And not a single one of those trailers is strong enough to withstand hurricane-strength winds.
What is strong enough for that is the so-called Katrina Cottage, a two-bedroom, aesthetically appealing house that can not only take 200-mph winds but is also cheaper than the travel trailers and, perhaps more important, built to last -- meaning that the Katrina Cottage can serve as a permanent dwelling.
The design is one of the products of a one-week session, the Mississippi Renewal Forum, held on that state's coast in October. About 110 architects, planners and designers converged with 80 of their local counterparts at the request of Gov. Haley Barbour to come up with ideas to redevelop 11 small coastal communities that were severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Fifty-thousand homes were obliterated and 80,000 were damaged along a 120-mile stretch of the Mississippi coast.Sounds good to me, maybe it could be used all over the United States to provide affordable housing to poor middle class people who aren't able to afford the high priced monstrosities that are called houses nowadays. It looks cute enough to be proud of, otherwise designers wouldn't be looking at it for vacation cottages. The porch idea is wonderful, it adds an element of friendliness and community. If more people spent time on their front porch it would be harder for illegal activities to occur. When you know your neighbors, you are more likely to look out for them.
{snip}
The cottage, which draws on the design of a Mississippi coastal cottage, is 14 by 22 feet plus an 8-foot-deep porch. Inside the front door is a living/dining area; to the right, a small kitchen with a four-burner range and a full-size refrigerator, sink, and cabinets. Beside it is a full bath. At the back of the house is a bedroom with two sets of bunk beds. There's storage space under the mattresses, and there is one closet. The house has central air and heat. It is sided in Hardieboard, a fiber-cement product, and topped with a metal roof.
