Crazy people do the strangest things. Man cuts the eyelids and tail off of cat, and then eats the tail all because ... wait for it ... the cat 'misplaced' his keys. It doesn't get much more wacko than that.

For a homeless guy living in a $250 car that was recently purchased with the help of a friend, John Muhammad sure does have some strange belongings: Inside the Chevrolet Caprice, authorities found a global positioning system unit, a Sony laptop computer, a pair of two-way radios, a .223-caliber bullet, a Bushmaster rifle and a cotton glove similar to one found at a shooting scene, according to the affidavit.

It very well could be that these items were stolen at some point, but I've just got this feeling that there's more to Muhammad than is being reported in the press.

Something really needs to be done about companies installing crap on your computer while 'notifying' you thru their EULA about it. The EULA is not notification enough as far as I'm concerned. And when removing the program you orignally downloaded doesn't also remove all the add-on crap that came with it - well, then its malicious. If you don't do it already, start running Ad Aware or SpyBot at least once a week.

UPDATE: I just ran SpyBot for the first time and it appears to identify alot more potential privacy problems than AdAware does. I think I'll be using them both in tandem from now on.

I'm sure Nate & Tomas aren't going to like this one: Muslim ties are no surprise. Mark Steyn had a bet with both his wife and his assistant that the sniper would turn out to be an Islamic Terrorist. While I didn't have a bet, there was a bit of 'I told you so' going on in my house and office the day after he was caught.

What Steyn follows that with is very fitting given the discussion on this site over the past week or so: "He's Islamic, and he's terrorizing people. That's good enough for me." My wife, on the other hand, insists it doesn't count unless he's got an official membership card in al-Qaida. That's not the way these fellows work, which, to give them the barest fig leaf of an excuse, may be why all those legions of TV experts clung to the approved "angry white male loner" cliches right up to the moment of arrest. But there's a difference between a reluctance to leap to conclusions and a bizarre determination to leap away from the facts.

The killer didn't kill blondes, he didn't kill fetching young men he picked up in bars, he didn't kill lonely spinsters from the personal ads. He killed Americans--male and female, young and old, black and white.

Now whose profile does that fit?

He then touches on what I talked about in the 'How Patient Are You' post below that Nate called bigoted. Not all Muslims are snipers, hostage-takers, nightclub bombers, suicide bombers, shoe bombers and folks who like their Fourth of July to go with more of a bang than you get from firecrackers. But a huge percentage of snipers, nightclub bombers, etc., turn out to be Muslim--and, if they're all acting independently, that's even more worrying.

I still say that the sentiment expressed there is correct - bigoted or not. If its not possible to step back and differentiate between the Muslims who are trying to kill you and the Muslims who just want to live their lives like normal civilized folk - well, thats just a recipe for problems.

UPDATE: ABC News has a poll out that shows that Americans are more negative about Islam right now than they were after 9/11.

Colby Cosh is probably gonna piss some people off with this rant, but I do think in general people level of patience is running out w/ terrorists. And the more 'isolated' incidents, or free-lancers that act out of sympathy for the terrorists rather than thru a direct connection with them - the less sympathy people will have for the group as a whole.

John Muhammad is not being treated like a terrorist - in fact - CNN is actually referring to him as John Williams despite the fact that he legally changed his name to Muhammad. A whole bunch more discussion on this issue over here. And lest anyone think its me trying to tie the sniper to his religion - remember it was him who said "Call me God" in his little notes to police (which you can read here in PDF format)

Also notice that the Muslims who took the theater hostage in Moscow are being called rebels, captors, guerillas, gunmen, hostage-takers - pretty much everything but terrorists. Meryl Yourish's take is right on: In my lexicon, guerrilla fighters and rebels are names for the people fighting military forces and choosing military targets. The second you move on to deliberately targeting civilians, you are no longer anything but a terrorist. But hey, what do I know?

There's just no arguing with that. Also, although I do feel that both the situation in Russia was clearly terrorism, and I think it likely that John Muhammad's shootings were terrorism - its also important to not try and link every crime committed by a Muslim to terrorism. There is a distinction there, and I regognize it - I just don't think its a distinction that fits these two scenerios.

The Emory U. professor who's been under investigation for basically writing a fraudelant book about the prevalance of guns in colonial times has resigned (likely to avoid being terminated). Jim has more over this way.

With the death of Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN), the Senate race just got extremely messy. I'm now holding out hope that the following scenerio plays out and makes a complete mockery of our election system: Wellstone's name remains on the ballot and liberals flock to the polls to honor him and he wins the seat. The Governor of Minnesota - Jesse Ventura - then gets to pick an 'interim' Senator. Jesse then steps down as Governor (this was his idea), and his Lt. Governor becomes the state's first female Governor. As a thanks for this honor, the new Governor of Minnesota then appoints none other than ... wait for it ... Jesse Ventura as Minnesota's new Senator. We can only hope.

Are we sure John Muhammad isn't a terrorist? Last year while living in a homeless shelter in Washington State, the FBI was called and notified that Muhammad might be connected to a terrorist organization. Although Muhammad spent time at the homeless shelter, he sometimes flashed a wallet thick with currency, and showed off expensive-looking watches and gold bracelets, Parks said. At the mission, Archer said, Muhammad would stay for a few days and then leave, saying he was traveling to Denver and New Orleans, among other places. The odd part was that Muhammad was traveling by airplane. Archer learned that when an airline ticket agent called the mission asking for Muhammad. "At the mission, not many airline agents call and ask for residents," Archer said. Muhammad's frequent flier status seemed odd to other people. One of them was Greg Grant, a real estate agent in Bellingham who owns and manages an apartment complex about two miles south of Sumas on Highway 9. Last year, Grant said, he would often drive residents of Lighthouse Mission - including Muhammad on several occasions - to the apartments to do yard work and other chores, then back to the mission once the work was done.

Now, this info doesn't prove anything at all; but it certainly sounds strange enough that it nees to be looked into further. [via Clayton Cramer]

Ugh, why can't I be wrong about this one. The UN Security Council is starting to water down the new Iraq resolution: Both the Russian and French texts eliminate references in the U.S. draft to Iraq being in "material breach" for violating U.N. resolutions, a phrase some legal experts said could lead to military action. The Russian text also gets rid of a U.S. warning of "serious consequences" if Iraq doesn't comply with U.N. weapons inspections. Gee, who would've thunk it.

Didn't take long for somebody to register duckinanoose.com did it? Me, Roosh and Stacy were kicking around ideas last night in regards to what that statement meant, and while we couldn't really figure out its meaning we were at least reading the correct story.

So how excatly do you view the DC sniper shootings now that we know who was behind them. An American citizen, former US military, Islam convert with no known ties to Al Quaeda but sympathetic to the 9/11 hijackers. So does this constitute terrorism? Or does it fall more to the side of serial killer, spree killer, etc?

Friendly reminder: If you are going to do a 'tribute concert' for a friend who died tragically, it might be a good idea to actually learn the words to the songs you are supposed to sing. Missy Elliot forgets words to songs at Aaliyah tribute concert. She not only forgot the words to the Aaliyah songs she was supposed to sing (including one song that Missy actually wrote), she forgot the words to some of her new material that hasn't been released - and couldn't even manage to remember her big hit - 'Get Your Freak On'. I'm guessing a pre-party with Whitney Houston may be the source of her problem.

Since the beginning, I've been telling my wife and co-workers that I thought the DC sniper is terrorist related - and right now, as I await their names and pictures which are supposed to be released later tonight, it appears that terrorism may indeed be involved.

MSNBC mentioned that the older fellow who was at Fort Lewis had changed his name somewhat recently (just a hunch, but could that be a Muslim name) UPDATE: - His name is John Mohammed. What a shock, eh?

The searches tonight - in Tacoma where an apartment was kept by a guy who tried to set up a jihad camp in Oregon.

Another search - in Bellingham a place connected to an anti-terrorism raid earlier this year.

The 3rd search - in Marion, Alabama is home to Camp Ground Zero - a training camp linked to Islamic militants.

Much much more at Bigs Blog.

If they weren't on the list already, you can add the New Black Panther Party to the 'looney left'. "George Bush, today, is like a modern Adolph Hitler. George Bush, today, just like Hitler, wants to rule the world," he continued. "George Bush today, just like Adolph Hitler then, is using a scheme and a plan to create foreign wars, foreign invasions, foreign enemies, foreign boogiemen, foreign conflicts so he can boost the patriotism of white America to go and jump on a foreign enemy." They also claim that Bush knew about Sept 11 - not in a general way - but that he knew the specifics of the attack and intentionally failed to act. They also blame his administration (Ari Fleisher specifically) for encouraging these sniper attacks in Maryland/Virginia - and referred to George Bush as 'the big sniper'.

The head of this group (which ironically the real Black Panther's do not associate with) is Malik Zulu Shabazz. Shabazz is so famous, he has his very own page at the Anti-Defamation League's website.

Are we sure that its the students that need a zero tolerance policy? Teacher receives 5-day suspension for taping 10-year old student to chair. The incident at Shaed Elementary occurred during an after-school dance class. Fifth-grader Everick Cephas said he was taped to his chair after talking in class and leaving the room to use the bathroom without the teacher's permission. He said the teacher tied his arms together with the tape and then looped it around his torso and legs, fastening his body to the chair in front of the classroom. Everick said he escaped by gnawing through the tape around his wrists and then pulling the tape off the rest of his body. "I felt scared," Everick said. "It made me not want to go to school."

At least that teacher was only into bondage instead of ... well, bondage of a different sort: Elementary school teacher/principal on trial for child porn possession. And a different elementary school teacher pleads no contest to child porn possession charges.

Whether or not this Iraq connection to the Oklahoma City bombings is true - it looks horrible for the US to now (after blaming it on McVeigh and executing him for it) start to connect it to Iraq. In fact, I think it looks so bad, that its likely that whatever evidence is shown in this case (real or trumped up) will be summarily dismissed by a large majority of the public.

But what increasingly drew her attention was another Iraqi living in Oklahoma City, a restaurant worker called Hussain Hashem Al Hussaini, whose photograph was almost a perfect match to the official sketch of "John Doe 2". Al Hussaini has a tattoo on his upper left arm, indicating he was once a member of Saddam's elite Republican Guard. And there is more. Al Hussaini, who entered the US from a Saudi refugee camp, worked after the Oklahoma bomb as a cook at Boston's Logan Airport - from where the two hijacked aircraft that hit the World Trade Center took off.

FYI, I likely won't be posting anything here until late this evening. Just wanted to save those of you who come here several times a day the trouble.

I've been waiting on an announcement like this for a couple of years now, but finally - Roy Jones Jr. is going to move up to the heavyweight division. His first fight will be John Ruiz (who gave Holyfield fits in their fights) and he ought to whack him out pretty easily - Ruiz is way to slow for Jones. I'm not so sure that Jones would stand a chance against a big heavyweight like Lennox Lewis, but with his speed he may. To bad Tyson is such a loser these days - he's a smaller heavyweight that would have been an interesting match for Jones.

The wacko's are starting to run with a new piece of propaganda against Bush - that he's going to cancel the November elections. This is the 3rd time I've seen this 'theory' in the last few days (didn't save where I found them originally because I thought it was a lone nut).

Oh, and while your at it, checkout the main website for that link - Rense. There's lots of 'interesting' information there like the Mossad was responsible for the Bali bombing. Or no, maybe the Americans did it. You've got to read this crap to believe it.

And how about a story on the Wichita Massacre (I live 5 miles outside Wichita in the suburb of Goddard). According to this website, this massacre is all about Black men killing White vitcims. Over and over we are reminded that the criminals are Black and the vitims are White. Disgusting.

Perhaps the most ridiculous law ever has been passed in Romania - it bans foreign language written or spoken words if they aren't accompanied by a Romanian translation. Under an unusual new law, Romania's fast-food vendors won't be able to hawk the English-only version any more. Instead, they'll also have to offer what would translate into Romanian as "a kind of sausage in a kind of roll". Computer companies advertising a "laptop" would also peddle "an apparatus for putting at the top of the lap". Politicians could keep gathering for a "summit" as long as they also called it "a high-level meeting". What a complete joke.

Christopher Hitchens takes the anti-war Left to the woodshed. The Left has employed arguments as contemptible as those on whose behalf they have been trotted out. It maintained that any resistance to ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Kosovo would lead to a wider war, chaos and/or the rallying of the Serbs to Milosevic. It forecast massive quagmires and intolerable civilian casualties. If this sounds familiar, it may be because you are hearing it again now and heard it last year from those who thought the Taliban-al Qaeda base in Afghanistan was not worth fighting about. It gets worse from there.

Looking for a meat marinade recipe, Solo gets off this classic line: "Schlyers wife, your a woman". I also get a kick that he refers to her almost exclusively as 'Schlyers wife' and not by her name - Stacy. Solo, you realize that when Frus reads your page she's probably shaking her head and mumbling something about treating women like chattel under her breath - which, of course, makes the whole thing worth while. :)

I'm stunned that the Lakers let him do it, but Shaq O'Neal is doing ride-alongs with local law enforcement in Baton Rouge, LA during drug busts. Yes really. And he was under investigation for roughing up a suspect by choking him and giving the guy a swirlee. He was later cleared of wrongdoing.

I may end up being wrong here, but I don't think the UN Security Council will ever authorize a use of force against Iraq. France and Russia were considering a new U.S. compromise for a Security Council resolution on Iraq, with Moscow saying for the first time Friday that it might agree to military action if Baghdad fails to cooperate with weapons inspections. That sentence is misleading becuase the only reason they are considering the new proposal is that the United States, supported by Britain, dropped a demand that a resolution explicitly authorize military force against Iraq.

Here's France's idea for what to do when/if inspections go awry: Once a failure is reported, the Security Council would convene immediately "to consider the situation and the need for full compliance with all the relevant council resolutions in order to restore international peace and security." So once Iraq doesn't comply, the French will turn around and simply say that full compliance isn't needed.

The Russian's ideas for dealing with a defiant Iraq aren't much different: "If the inspectors began to work in Iraq and in the course of this work, problems arise, the inspectors should report what problems have arisen. Then the U.N. Security Council should again consider this issue and decide whether harsher measures, right up to the use of force, are required," Ivanov said at a news conference. Again with the 'maybe full compliance isn't necessary' language. And the harsher measures go right up to - but not including - the use of force.

Make no mistake - we are getting nothing from the UN. But Charles Krauthammer doesn't think we need anything from them anyway. The war ended in 1991, not in a treaty or even in a truce but in a cease-fire, a "suspension" of hostilities conditioned on Hussein's disarmament. Having not disarmed, he is in violation of the cease-fire. The suspension is thus unsuspended. Q.E.D. If this seems like legal quibbling to you, don't blame me. I believe that the entire notion of "U.N. authority" is nonsense in the first place. But for those who feel that the United States may not defend itself without reference to some piece of U.N. paper, the paper is there. The case is clear -- even State Department lawyers should be able to make it.

I also think Krauthammer's point is one of the main reasons that we won't get another resolution from the UN. The other Security Council members know that we don't technically need one to go into Iraq - and so they can look like good guys to the Arab world by standing up to us on the new resolution - yet get all the benefit of Saddam being ousted when we go in despite the lack of a new resolution. They get to play both sides of the same issue - its actually very good politics.

Indonesia's best-known radical Muslim has a little message for the families of those killed in the Bali bombing: Asked if there was anything he wanted to say to families who lost relatives in the bomb blast, he said: "My message to the families is please convert to Islam as soon as possible." Mr Bashir offered no sympathy for those who died; just his belief that by converting to Islam, the survivors could ensure they would avoid the fate of those non-Muslims who died and went to hell.

I don't know one way or another, but I'm a getting more and more suspicious of the use of the term 'radical' when describing Muslim leaders. I have no doubt that some of the leaders are indeed 'radical' in the sense that their intrepretation of Islam is out of step with the mainstream. But at least in the US, when someone is labeled as radical - they tend to have relatively small followings. I'm not so sure thats the case w/ 'radical' Islam. There seems to be alot of support for the radical intrepretation in the Arab world - and to some extent in Southeast Asia.

Who's to blame for the Bali bombing? Lileks pretends its the Australians, the Balinese, and the Americans - the Indonesians and the Terrorists are most definately not to blame. This stuff just makes me shake my head. [via IP]

And for those of you who never read the linked articles - the only non-joking sentences in Lileks piece are the last two: The West is the real threat. Once we're gone, the violence will end. Truer words were never spoken. Think about that.

Slate has an excellent explanation of why the US Miltary can help out in the DC Sniper case - even though the Posse Comitatus Act seems to prohibit the use of military forces in the enforcement of civilian laws. Mostly its because the Act ...has a number of exceptions—enough exceptions, it turns out, to virtually swallow the rule. No one has ever been prosecuted for violating the Posse Comitatus Act.

I still haven't figured it out, but the Scrabble Dictionary just keeps on getting purchased thru this site. There had been eight purchased as of about 2 weeks ago - and now we're up over the 16 mark. I don't get it.

The Australian's (at least one of their newspapers) seems to think that the US is ignoring their pain about the Bali terrorist attack. That thought is thoroughly debunked at MeFi - so I won't even mess with responding to that. Rather I'm more interested in the opening sentence of this article from Australia: The British press has dubbed the Bali bombings Australia's own September 11. And from this article: The bombed-out bars in Bali are our twin towers.

Now, while the Bali attack is horrific for sure - it doesn't compare well to what happened here on 9/11. For one, although mostly Australians were killed - it didn't happen in Australia. There's something to be said for realizing that your own country's security is shit as opposed to being able to still feel secure inside your own borders.

The second big difference is that on 9/11 - most of America watched these people die. We watched the 2nd plane ram into the WTC tower. We watched the towers fall - knowing that everyone inside and below was being killed. Trying to equate that experience with what the Aussie's experienced seems a stretch to me.

What a kick in the pants. I've been following the saga of the Tripping The Rift 'cartoon' for what has to be more than two years, and just when it looked like it would finally make it onto television - everything goes to shit. The original creators are no longer involved in the process and have no clue when or if the show will ever appear on television. What a shame.

All the talk of the sniper on the loose in around Washington DC got me to thinking - how much sniper-type training can you get outside the military. The answer: alot more than I thought. And I don't necessarily think this person would need sniper training to pull off what they've done so far - they could just be an accomplished hunter. I don't see much difference in setting up a blind, and picking off a deer as it crosses your path with the way this guy is operating. He doesn't appear to be picking his target so much as he's picking his location and waiting for a target.

It goes without saying that Luciano Pavarotti isn't the best spokesman for fighting world hunger. But, since he's volunteering - I have the solution: Push yourself away from the table Luciano - your daily intake (Rehearsal snacks have been said to run to 20 large rolls and four litres of orange juice) could feed 5 or 6 people. Pavarotti's actual tonnage remains a closely guarded secret. "No one will ever know the real truth" he once said, "unless they weigh me after I'm dead."

Its official, Osama Bin Laden is dead. Oh, you won't find any specific mention of it in that article - but he's dead just the same. The linked article is from one of Bin Laden's pals saying that very soon there will be another video tape of Osama "adressing the muslim people".

Al-Rashed said: "Sheikh Osama is alive and in good health. He has gained more weight due to security precautions and his inability to move a lot as you will notice in his next appearance."

Since when is Osama concerned about his appearance. I don't remember there ever being previous warnings that he'll look sickly in this video, or we apologize for the ugly rocks behind us in this video. Nope, this is way out of character for his group.

Instead, I think Al-Rashed is trying to prepare the world for an imposter who will be sitting in for Bin Laden on this tape. But it isn't going to work - at least not in the educated world. Some chuncky Muslim who declared a jihad against his stomach 6 weeks ago to try and lose weight like a jockey before a race isn't going to be able to look, sound, and move like Bin Laden. We've got way too much prior video of Osama to compare against. I look for this tape to be only a few minutes long (or shorter), of low picture quality - think a slightly unfocused lense, and perhaps not even lingering on 'Osama' much - but rather panning around the room/tent/cave at the others gathered around as 'Osama' continues talking.

UPDATE: Israeli intelligence officers are also now saying that Bin Laden is dead.

The man who won the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize - Nelson Mandela is saying that the United States "believe(s) in white supremacy". Really.

When UN secretaries-general were white we never had the question of any country ignoring the United Nations, but now that we have got black secretaries-general like Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Kofi Annan certain countries that believe in white supremacy are ignoring the UN for racist reasons."

With the continued threat of terrorist activity here in the US, you'd probably think that the FBI and the US Dept of Justice would have something better to do than investigate the 'hate crime' of 'lynching' several Barbie dolls at a high school in Georgia. You'd think that, but you'd be wrong.

And our court system isn't much smarter: A junior high school student in Arkansas who wrote a violent letter to an ex-girlfriend does not enjoy First Amendment protection, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled, even though he wrote the letter at home and did not deliver it. Doe v. Pulaski County Special School District, No. 01-1048. Funny, I always thought that in order to threaten someone, you actually had to ... well ... threaten them.

Eventually, school bullies will catch on to the newest way to get their targets in trouble - pass them drugs. It doesn't matter if the student doesn't know they are drugs, or just throws them away, or reports it to a counsellor - they'll still likely get suspended. [link via Education Weak]

Nerve has an interview with Irvine Welsh about his new book 'Porno' - which is the sequel to Trainspotting. [Buy it at Amazon] I think that now, porn's a bit like drugs were in Trainspotting � it's underground, about to go mainstream. Of course, it can't really, because of the legislation. But everybody's into it. Thanks to the internet, it's easy for people to consume pornography, and forty percent of those who do are women. It changes the whole narrative.

Interesting stuff. You can get a look at all of Welsh's books right here.

In the previous thread about Sedaris Blair mentioned the story about Sedaris and his lisp. Since Stacy also thought the story was hilarious (she read it prior to Blair's comments) I figured I'd point everybody to where they can read it - its called 'Go Carolina'. Well worth your time.

Nothing like playing both sides of the same game. Now, the same enviro's that have warned us for years and years that Global Warming was raising the temperature of the earth and causing all sorts of problems are trying to say that Global Warming could actually cause another Ice Age - within our lifetimes. Gagosian believes the melting of the polar ice cap as a result of global warming will increase the amount of fresh water in the normally salty North Atlantic Ocean and could stop the Gulf Stream from carrying heat from the tropics north. This could all lead to the earth plunging into a new ice age, according to Gagosian.

I'm beginning to actually believe that if you give an idiot enough rope, he'll hang himself. The enviro's have fast become their own worst enemy - spouting off one apocalyptic theory after another only to have to yank the carpet out from under themselves each time.

This David Sedaris guy was on Letterman tonight reading one of his essays about clothing accessories for men and earlier talking about feeding flies to spiders. I've never heard of the guy before tonight, but he was funny enough to convince me to order his 'Me Talk Pretty One Day' book.

I'm still undecided whether to take a chance on The Fat Black Pussycat or Dracula the Dirty Old Man. I'm not sure whether they'll be campy fun old movies - or just plain bad. Anybody know?

The official Star Wars site has text descriptions of the deleted scenes that will be included on the Episode 2 - Attack of the Clones DVD.

Viewers will have the option of just watching the scenes themselves, or watching brief introductions by Writer-Director George Lucas, Producer Rick McCallum and Editor Ben Burtt, explaining why the scenes were cut. Its too bad that there won't be an option of watching the deleted scenes inline with the rest of the movie (basically the pre-cut version).

Its the 1-year anniversary of Movable Type - and they also used the occasion to release version 2.5. I've typically waited about a week until installing any upgrades because there has invariably been some bugs in the new releases.

As a follow-up to my post about the NY Times Poll/Article yesterday: It appears now that its not just the people surveyed that are stupid (a majority of those surveyed didn't know that the Bush administration's policy towards Iraq included regime change) - so are the NY Times writers and the folks administering this particular poll.

From David Tell: According to the NY Times article, Public Says Bush Needs to Pay More Heed to Economy, Less to Iraq. Yet the poll that was used to write this article says: ...majority of respondents (52 percent) told Times/CBS researchers they think the president is dividing his attention "about right" and another two percent complained that Bush spends too much time on domestic issues. Only 41 percent of respondents said they think the president overemphasizes foreign policy. Among key, swing-voting independents, the trend is even starker: 58 percent of respondents said they believe the president devotes enough or too much effort to domestic questions, while just 35 percent complained that he is neglecting them.

It gets worse from there. Dick Morris is all over this as well. [links via Instapundit]

I'm not one to talk about myself here a whole lot, but I could use a bit of sympathy after the last week or so. Lets recap:

Tiny oil leak in the mini-van ends up costing me $703 to get fixed.

The hard drive on my laptop for work is in the crapper - I keep getting 'Primary Hard Disk Not Found' messages when I attempt to boot up. I'll actually get to complain about this one twice - once now when its barely working, and then again when I get the new drive and have to reinstall all my programs.

Year-end bonus at work will be roughly half of what it was last year (damn you Osama).

And finally, my credit card number got stolen sometime this weekend. The fraud department called me yesterday because of unusual activity on my card. Seems somebody was making a whole lot of small dollar purchases over the internet (ebay, alldomains, software vendors in Spain & Brazil, etc.). I still haven't figured out how the card number was stolen from me. What seems most likely is that it was swiped from DirectNIC while I was renewing this domain on Thursday afternoon (the charges started on Friday). Maybe their site isn't as secure as it needs to be - maybe not, I'll probably never know where the card # got stolen from.

Is Scrabble really this popular? There has been 8 copies of the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary sold thru the Amazon links at this site within the past 3 weeks. I've never really liked the game because my wife kicks my ass every time we play.

Major re-design effort over at Predictable Failure. This one is going to take some getting used to for me since it doesn't use the 'standard' blog format. Speaking of, although after some point a whole lot of blogs start to basically look alike because of the similar format they all share - it sure does make navigation easier. I almost instinctively know where to find things like perma links, archives, search boxes and other navigation - because its in nearly the same place at all the sites I read regularly.

Oliver Willis links to this NY Times poll/article that makes the case that Bush should pay more attention to the economy, and less worrying about foreign affairs (Iraq specifically). Its enough to make a guy believe Tommy Lee Jones in Men In Black, A *person* is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it. Consider this - from the people:

There were also clear suggestions that some Americans suspected that Mr. Bush's intentions went beyond simply disarming Iraq. More than half said that Mr. Bush was more interested in removing Mr. Hussein than in removing potentially lethal weapons. Only half the people believe this? How closely are the people paying attention if they only 'suspect' regime change is a goal, when Bush has openly said that regime change is his Administration's policy. The lack of knowledge on this issue doesn't do much for my confidence in their opinions on the rest of the issues raised in the article.

Rush Limbaugh [his people anyway] has created a flash cartoon that 'responds' to the DNC cartoon depicting Bush pushing wheelchair bound seniors to their demise. Have a peek.

Hmm, Bloggerzone is a brand new competitor with Blog*Spot. The mighty Glenn Reynolds is pointing people to it, which is bit suprising. Suprising, because Glenn is a law professor and should have immediately seen a major flaw with Bloggerzone - it uses a term tradmarked by Pyra, Blogger in its name. That would seem to be have a high probability of causing confusion in the marketplace would it not?

Unless Ev is awfully nice about this, I expect a name change from Bloggerzone in the near future.

The Democratic National Committee is running a Flash ad that shows GW Bush pushing wheel-chair bound old folks off a "cliff" (they crash when they hit bottom). The ad is focused on Bush's plan to privatize Social Security. Beyond the sheer tastless nature of the ad, its also downright incorrect when it states that "if Bush had gotten his way the Social Security trust fund would have lost 40% of its value.

The only way that could have happened is if Bush's plan entailed privatizing all of the Social Security money - which he's never proposed. But the details aren't important, just the big picture. Bush + Privatize Social Security + Falling Stock Market = Death to Seniors.

A spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, Bill Buck, called the cartoon a "humorous take on a serious issue." Yeah, those old people dying/getting injured sure is funny. I know whenever I see old people fall down I laugh my ass off.

The sooner the election comes for the Dems, the better. A couple more weeks of this crap and they won't get taken seriously by anyone but their hardcore base.

Does Halle Berry realize that she's 34 years old? She musn't, because her website, Hallewood (ugh) is designed as if she's a 13 year old girl. Its like she took everything that was bad about