PSoTD

I honestly hadn't considered the guy at all before now. Conventional Wisdom didn't give him a chance. But if Dodd's gonna act on his principles instead of "triangulating", that will certainly differentiate him from HRC and Obama.

Maybe if we bump Dodd up the polls the rest of the field will get the message. I'm giving him a serious look. Action talks ...

Thank you, Joe Torre.

The S-CHIP veto override fails.

A furious campaign to persuade Republicans to change their votes on the $35 billion expansion of the government children's health insurance program fell 13 votes short today when the House failed to overturn President Bush's veto of the legislation.

...

The unsuccessful veto override immediately triggered calls for the next round of negotiations to decide the fate of the 10-year-old children's health program. The vetoed bill would have expanded the $5 billion-a-year program by an average of $7 billion a year over the next five years, for total funding of $60 billion over the period. That would be enough to boost enrollment to 10 million, up from 6.6 million, and dramatically reduce the number of uninsured children in the country, currently about 9 million, supporters say.

Bush has indicated he is not willing to accept a bill that goes beyond his initial $5 billion expansion over five years. The president and GOP leaders say the vetoed measure would have pushed millions of children already covered by private health insurance into publicly financed health care. They say it would also create an "entitlement" whose costs would outstrip the money raised by the bill's 61-cent increase in the federal tobacco tax.

Having stood with Bush against a bill that had overwhelming public support, GOP leaders urged Democrats to come to the table with a scaled-down version. But Democratic leaders were leaning toward a new version that would give Republicans face-saving alterations but no substantive change.

Pelosi said she is determined to provide the resources to ensure that 10 million more children would be added to the rolls.

That's right, Nancy. This fight better just be starting.

If the leaders of the Democratic Congress can't find a way around Bush on a bill that 75 percent of Americans support, then it's time for new Democratic leaders.

Looking for some rural land to buy in Pennsylvania?

Oldies go against everything I stand for, but Tony DeFranco's dance moves and footwear are so uncannily reminiscent of PSoTD on the basketball court that I'm making an exception. Take special note of PSoTD's signature defensive shuffle at 2:10!

The 17th annual world's oldest and biggest free email poker tournament is gearing up at wrgpt.org There are no entry fees required, no prizes given and no Norman Chad. All play is by email. Depending on your tablemates, you play about a hand a day. Players have four hours to make a play and the clock only runs 8 hours a day, five days a week. Yeah, it's fairly geeky but if you're fairly geeky and like Texas Hold' Em ... it's good clean cheap entertainment! (And if you're reading this blog, you're probably fairly geeky.)

They're anticipating about 1600 players this year. Last year, I got knocked out after three months in 433rd place. This time around, I want the bracelet!

Maybe expelling kids would be a bit too much...

Four students at Barre Town Elementary and Middle School will not be expelled, after school officials say they set off a homemade bomb near fields while sports teams were practicing.

The school says the kids copied a video they'd seen on the web site You Tube, and made a bomb out of a 2-liter soda bottle.

The school board will allow the kids to return to the classroom but they will be disciplined.

Police are also investigating the incident.

On the other hand, naming the parents of the kids in the article seems somewhat appropriate to me. Kids can do dumbass things, and will. It seems like a reasonable standard, however, for parents to be able to prevent bombmaking by their kids, particularly in elementary school. And it seems to me that if that reasonable standard isn't met, then it's reasonable to publicly declare who isn't meeting the standard.

Good God, I found this confusing. It would be so much easier if they would just put the instructions in a YouTube video, preferably with background music from the 70s, oh yeah...

but they didn't. So I have to do this. It's the law. Blogger's Law, look it up. So first of all, here are these rules.

BTW, this is known as The Pharyngula Mutating Genre Meme. There will be a test on this later, about 4:30 AM, in your dreams, given by the fellow from the old Cracker Jacks commercials.

There are a set of questions below that are all of the form, “The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is…”. Copy the questions, and before answering them, you may modify them in a limited way, carrying out no more than two of these operations:

• You can leave them exactly as is.
• You can delete any one question.
• You can mutate either the genre, medium, or subgenre of any one question. For instance, you could change “The best time travel novel in SF/Fantasy is…” to “The best time travel novel in Westerns is…”, or “The best time travel movie in SF/Fantasy is…”, or “The best romance novel in SF/Fantasy is…”.
• You can add a completely new question of your choice to the end of the list, as long as it is still in the form “The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is…”.
• You must have at least one question in your set, or you’ve gone extinct, and you must be able to answer it yourself, or you’re not viable.

Then answer your possibly mutant set of questions. Please do include a link back to the blog you got them from, to simplify tracing the ancestry, and include these instructions.

First of all, the path of how this ended up here:

My great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is Pharyngula.
My great-great-great-great-grandparent Metamagician and the Hellfire Club.
My great-great-great-grandparent is Flying Trilobite.
My great-great-grandparent is A Blog Around the Clock.
My great-grandparent is archy.
My grandparent is Why Now?
My parent is Rook's Rants.

And now, the questions:

The best alien invasion song in SF/Fantasy is: Planet Claire by The B-52s

The best “bad” movie in SF/Fantasy is: Repo Man

The best sexy song in pop is: “The Sensual World” as performed by Kate Bush.

The best flavor filling in PopTarts is: Chocolate Fudge by Kelloggs

And now for the part you were really looking forward to - who to tag? Unfortunately I can't tag Rook back, dumb Blogger Laws... so here's your poison:

Mike over at Content, because he clearly has spare time.

I know she thinks she's too busy to do this, but What Do I Know?

Ellroon... Ellroon...

Ellroon already mutated. Don't go to sleep! I will now replace Ellroon with Ron at Toad in the Hole. I know she'll appreciate that.

Fixer over at Alternate Brain should be good for this too.

Remember, when you're looking for someone to blame for your problems, the easiest route is to blame your parents. Even in memes!

Why is it that we don't have parties that specifically orient themselves to socioeconomics? For example, why isn't there a "Middle Class Party" that would push candidates that support policies that cater particularly to the interests and desires of the middle class? If it's really about branding of candidates and positions, why not stake out the largest segment of the voting marketplace?

The Dairy Queen on the Carlisle Pike burned last night. The view this morning...

and last night...

I do not understand why so many people are still buying Domino's Pizza.

I've never lived anywhere that didn't have a locally owned pizza restaurant, usually with delivery, if that's what people need to have. Why not better support the local economy? Why not discover the intended use of tastebuds?

So says Germaine Greer.

Hey, if you went to Granada High School in Livermore, fill in your information at this site. It's actually linked to by the school. Especially if you're from the Class of 1977. It's free, and the $25 module lasts a lifetime, but until there's a big enough population of students in there, it doesn't make sense to pay.

So get in there!

If he just knew how many folks were on the Internet searching for stories about him and goats. Then he'd know it was true!

Not surprisingly, those with experience say no.

I have yet to speak with an experienced, successful interrogator who advocates mistreating their subjects. As personally satisfying as it may seem to beat the hell out of detainees, it doesn't usually get you what you want -- accurate, reliable information that you can trust and upon which you can act.

In Vietnam the Provincial Interrogation Centers routinely used skilled Vietnamese interrogators to obtain accurate, detailed information on the organization, personnel and structure of the Vietnamese Communist Infrastructure -- exactly the type of information Guantanamo should be producing by the pound on radical Islamic terrorism.

I think we make a major strategic error when we support such would-be macho men as we see in this administration showing their supposed toughness by advocating torture, when we know it doesn't work.

- Retired Army Lt. Col. Terry Daly, a veteran of military intelligence operations in the Vietnam War.

Andrew summarizes neatly ...

Or to put it another way: President Bush has a weak person's idea of what strength is; and a dumb person's idea of what intelligence is.

I wrote this in February and never posted it, thinking that it was too rash. Now, I'm more inclined to say three years, max.

I realize it is throwing the baby out with the bathwater, but the fact is, our national televised political reporting organizations are in dire need of repair. They suck, and we all know it, and we all complain about it, but we don't do anything about it.

Isn't it time the word go out - if you're in the political reporting division hierarchies today of ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC (I won't include Fox because their job is political propaganda), you have five years. Five years to clear out your desk, five years to go through retraining, five years to look for your retirement parachute. Five years. We want you out. We recognize that we can't accomplish that yet, but we'll figure out how to get rid of you.

Why can't bloggers do what Congress is afraid to do, and set deadlines for exit? For the national political news media...

That means you, Chris Matthews, and your staff as it is. That means George Will and George S at ABC. It means Scarborough and Russert and yes, sorry, Olbermann too. You get five more years eating the best cheeses and drinking the most expensive wines and hanging out with whoever it is you choose to hang out with, but after that, go do it in a job that doesn't require the public's allowance of the broadcast frequencies. Get out.

Just wow.

Google netted 37.1 billion of 61 billion total searches for August, dwarfing totals from Yahoo, Baidu.com and Microsoft.

Google captured roughly 60 percent of the searches conducted worldwide in August, blowing away the field with 37.1 billion of 61 billion queries, according to new statistics from comScore. Five billion of Google's August searches came from the Mountain View, Calif., company's video property YouTube.com.

My father, like Susie's Dad, passed away about a year ago. Reading her post made me wonder about something. Both my parents are passed now, and I still feel loss in many different ways, but one of the ways is one I never could have expected - a loss of a piece of me, a role I played.

I'm the oldest child, and I guess I didn't really appreciate what that actually meant to me while my parents were alive. At least when they were talking to me, I had the sense that some of what they said was steeped in an expectation of responsibility as the oldest child. This "steeping" starts early, I can hear it in myself when I explain to our daughter that I have different - higher - expectations of her behavior than her brother because she's older. I'm sure I heard that when I was a kid - maybe it just sticks. I can't say I ever heard that as an adult, but perhaps that's the filter that some things went through after a while.

It's not a haunting loss, but it's still a noticeable one, more than a year after I last spoke with my Dad. I wonder if it's common for the oldest child to somehow miss the sense of being the oldest child after parents pass.

Be prepared when the right wingers lie out their butts in the coming health care wars. This FactCheck.org article is a must read.

President Bush gave a false description of proposed legislation to expand the 10-year-old federal program to provide health insurance for children in low-income working families.

He said it "would result" in covering children in families with incomes up to $83,000 per year, which isn't true. The Urban Institute estimated that 70 percent of children who would gain coverage are in families earning half that amount, and the bill contains no requirement for setting income eligibility caps any higher than what's in the current law. (The compromise bill that was released a few days after Bush's press conference does rescind an administration effort to block New York state from increasing its eligibility cap to that level.)

He also said the program was "meant to help poor children," when in fact Congress stated that it was meant to expand insurance coverage beyond the poor and to cover millions of "low-income" children who were well above the poverty line. Under current law most states cover children at twice or even three times the official poverty level.

The president also says Congress' expansion is a step toward government-run health care for all. It's true that some children and families with private insurance are expected to shift to the government program. But the Congressional Budget Office estimates that such a shift is relatively low considering the number of uninsured these bills would reach.

Atrios and Matt Yglesias have the disturbing details.

If this would be a good shirt idea from the National Asparagus Council?

Honestly, Idaho Republicans should be beyond incredibly embarrassed about the Larry Craig disaster - and getting angry about it. He shouldn't have any credibility left with them - he's been deceitful in this bathroom case ever since it came to public light. Didn't understand what he was doing when he plead guilty. Would quit if he wasn't cleared by the end of September. Why is anything that comes out of Larry Craig's mouth on this story believable at this time?

It's not. It's too late for Larry Craig to "clear his name", he sealed the deal when he plead guilty. His choice, his result.

I can envision a time when Idaho Republicans, no matter what office they may be running for, will run into chants of "Larry Craig" by the opposition whenever they say something unbelievable. Rather than clearing his name, Larry Craig is on the road of having his name clear a room.

Over at the State Museum in Harrisburg on Friday, October 26th.

Remember when they played defense on the Chicago Bears?

It's really, really close to time to consider the Bears out of it for this season. It looks to me that the Bears cannot afford another loss for at least another month - that's three games and a bye week. They're not playing at a level that suggests they can do it, even though we're talking about Philadelphia, Detroit and Oakland here. Defense stinks, embarrassingly bad, even with all the injuries. It looks to me like Urlacher has lost a step - which, considering , this is his eighth season, is not a big surprise.

This sounds like the kind of national business that George W. Bush might run after he leaves office.

A company that spreads processed human waste from New York on north Alabama farmland has agreed to make changes after complaints about strong odors.

Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks and officials of Synagro Technologies talked Friday and both sides then issued statements about the planned changes.

Sparks said the officials of the Houston-based company had assured him “they will no longer distribute the fertilizer on pasture land.” Where it is spread, it will be worked into the dirt instead of being placed on top of the soil.

The company said it will continue going to the most remote locations for applications and will make deliveries just before application to reduce odor concerns. It also plans to alter transportation routes to avoid populated areas and schools.

Synagro Technologies has a contract to dispose of human wastes from New York. The company, which operates with approval from the Environmental Protection Agency, treats sludge from wastewater plants in New York and ships it to Alabama by rail car. The sludge is treated at a plant in Leighton, then offered at no charge to farmers in Limestone County to fertilize their fields.

About 40 farmers have signed up and more are on a waiting list.

The spreading of the fertilizer has drawn opposition from the Limestone County Commission and complaints from neighbors.

Meanwhile, Commission Chairman David Seibert said Friday he will meet next week with Synagro officials.

“We have a meeting set up with them Thursday,” Seibert said. “Hopefully, something can be worked out at that time.”

Commissioners voted Wednesday to seek an injunction to stop the spread of the human wastes on Limestone County farmland as fertilizer. Seibert is in the process of seeking that injunction in Limestone County Circuit Court.

Residents in the Goodsprings area of Northwest Limestone County complained two weeks ago that the sludge being spread on farmland there has created an unbearable odor.

Congratulations, Cincinnati Reds, you figured out how to do it!

I'm sure they could have done it, but off the top of my head, I can't think of a worse manager for the Reds than Dusty Baker.

Hey, is there a food that better describes Central Pennsylvania?

From DorothySH

Maybe it's time to drop out.

Sen. Joe Biden not only has his work cut out for him nationally as he seeks the Democratic presidential nomination, he also is way behind in Delaware, a poll of state Democrats shows.

A sampling of local voters for Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind poll shows that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., is the choice of 41 percent of Delaware Democrats, with Biden second with 19 percent, just ahead of Sen. Barack Obama at 17 percent.

Biden's showing seems to indicate that Delaware Democrats think he can't win the nomination.

Only 4 percent of voters polled rated his prospects for capturing the nomination as “excellent,” and 50% thought his chances were “poor,” up from 39% in February.

I finished a less than inspired listening to Jethro Tull's "A Passion Play". I think the review here fits my thoughts.

I like Jethro Tull's work - Aqualung was my favorite of their work for a while until I really listened to Thick as a Brick and Warchild, and I'm good with any of those three, but I find "A Passion Play" to be a tedious listen.

I just found out I had a Facebook site, sorta. I don't remember even setting it up.

I was taking a look at this site over at the Internet Archive WayBack Machine, and one of the things that struck me is how little my blogroll has actually changed in two years. For the most part, the folks that are blogrolled today were blogrolled then as well. As a general rule, I usually blogroll any blogger that blogrolls me, so what this really seems to be saying is that in general, blogrolls haven't changed much over the past two years.

Not this one, either.

I'm looking for one with maximum comfort. The kind where you can be lying down, watching the football game on Sunday and suddenly realize it's almost dinner time. Yes, a nice looking snooze couch.

Any suggestions? And no, not your old one.

Sometimes I think a blogger's alias is actually a word jumble for something else that better describes him or her. It's fun to play with the letters sometimes. Take this name: Mondoreb - what can you make of it?

Boner Dom
Med Boom
Ben R. Doom
Broom Den
Bend Moor
Mooned RB
Dome Bond
One brood

Last Christmas I received 3 gift certificates for Amazon, and I've slowly been using them up. In the process, I've started wondering about something.

I usually order enough to qualify for free shipping - the 7-9 day delivery option. However, whenever I do this, it seems like the initial shipping day provided is at least a week in advance. Yesterday I made an order in which I was told the shipping date was projected to be 10/15. Delivery estimate: October 22, 2007 - October 26, 2007. This wasn't going to work, because I need one of the items by the 20th, so I didn't want to take the chance. So I upgraded, and paid for shipping, within 3-5 days.

Wala! I get a message today that my order has been shipped - today.

What's up with that? Is Amazon disinforming me so I'll be "encouraged" to pay for shipping? Or is Amazon stalling on fulfillment for free shipping orders to "encourage" me to pay for shipping?

And teachers' aides have to be able to deal with it without punching holes in their heads.

A fourth-grade teacher’s aide resigned after he was accused of trying to staple a piece of paper to a student’s forehead.

Plymouth school district Supt. John Hill would not identify the aide or the class at Jefferson Elementary School.

“We’re just sorry that it happened,” Hill said Wednesday night. “We don’t expect our people to behave in that manner. That person is no longer employed by the school corporation.”

Principal Bob Remenih said he could not comment on a student or personnel matter. But Natalie Wilson, the fourth-grader’s mother, told the South Bend Tribune that the principal called her shortly before her daughter got on the school bus Monday, more than three hours after the incident occurred.

“I should have been told immediately,” Wilson told the newspaper.

Wilson said her daughter told her she had picked up a Post-It note from the floor and stuck it to her forehead. The aide told her to remove the paper from her forehead or he would staple it there permanently. When the student failed to remove the paper, the aide approached her with a stapler and pushed it against her forehead, Wilson said.

I'm starting to think that newspapers need to put some sort of intelligence test as part of the comment process, something similar to the visual code that is sometimes required to be repeated to avoid comment spam. Maybe something like a picture of a cow, a horse, a pig, and a computer, with the question of "which item is not like the others?" It could prevent such brilliant comments that followed this story such as:

I do not agree with what the aide has done but why did the girl disobey in the first place? The same reason that all children do not obey adults anymore, there is NO DISCIPLINE. I have read about kids shooting, and not listening to authority. This morning I read about a kid pushing the principle...OH MY GOD, we would have got our butts beat by the principle then again by our parents when we got home. I definately do not think this guy should have done that but kids are little brats anymore, something needs done!!

and

Crybaby.

Next time use a nail gun.....

The Amazing Mr. X

Bad lyrics and rock go together like George Bush and incompetence. Blender has come up with their list of the 40 Worst Lyricists.

Here's an example ...

09 • Donovan

LSD may be a lot fun—But not if we have to listen to entire albums made on it.

The ’60s folkie once claimed he could “write about any facet of the human condition”; sadly, Donovan chose to concentrate largely on the ones ­involving mermaids. The annoying hippie’s annoying hippie, Donovan traveled to India to see the Maharishi, wore robes on his record covers and released a double album for the children of Aquarius called Gift From a Flower to a Garden. Today, a man with his skill set would be hassling people for bus fare; back then, he was a pop star.

Worst lyric: “In love pool eyes float feathers after the struggle/The hopes burst and shot joy all through the mind/Sorrow more distant than a star/Multi colour run down over your body/Then the liquid passing all into all/Love is hot, truth is molten” (“Barabajagal [Love Is Hot]”)

To be fair, I don't think many lyrics hold up without the music. There are some pretty good bands on this list. Donovan's lyrics aren't bad, they're cosmic!

These posts are not for clowns only:

This may be a preview of the National League Championship Series, but my guess is that the World Series winner is gonna be Colorado.

Fondue is back!

I like fondue.

I appreciated Chris Matthews' question about getting approval from the Congress before any attack of Iran at the Republican debate the other night. A few, particularly Ron Paul, had reasonable answers, most of the answers were amongst the most pussyist I've ever seen on a Constitutional question. The king of the pussies was clearly Romney - call the lawyers? I'm sorry, that's the kind of answer the current President gives all the time - look at his approval ratings to see how convincing that is. I hope Romney wins the nomination, he may have money but he's a cardboard cutout.

Me too.

I see that Jeff Fecke over at Shakesville has something to say about that ludicrous "turn-on" article as well.

Roxanne's reading Colbert's new book.

Except Rancho Cordova, California. Spent two years there, two of the darkest years of my life, although that wasn't necessarily Rancho Cordova's fault (although it didn't help).

This was also my public transit period. After about three months of living in Rancho Cordova, my car pretty much gave up the ghost, and I didn't have the money to buy a new one, and so, for about 10 months, I rode my bike in good weather and took the bus to work and in bad weather. The bus system in Sacramento at that time was pretty good, and there was a main stop near Mather Air Base that I could use to catch a bus to almost anywhere I needed to go, so it worked for me.

I was probably in some of the best condition of my life because of all the bike riding, too.

But, it was a crappy time because I was let go by my employer and spent about 5 months unemployed while I looked for a new job. At first, I treated the unemployment as more like a vacation, but after a few months of disappearing money I felt more and more desperate, and wasn't getting anywhere on finding a job I wanted, so my employment standards started slipping slowly. The waiting game was frustrating and depressing, as I started to wonder if anyone would want to hire me.

Which is why I don't think much of Rancho Cordova, period.

Yeah, it was time to dig into Spring Session M by Missing Persons.

Sure, Dale Bozzio's voice still gets on my nerves, but no doubt, this is a pretty important album from 1982. The pop new wave tunes - and the synthesizers used to make them - are about as reminiscent of the whole decade as anything.

Not going to buy a replacement for the tape, but I'll listen to the tape again.

I'm not sure why I read this article on Yahoo!, but I did: 8 Surprising Turn-Ons for Men

I guess I don't know what makes one man, with no evidence to back up his claims, feel that he could possibly opine about what works for men in general. Nor do I comprehend why one guy would think that the same things would work for every woman. I guess I just don't understand how anyone could claim they know what works for men in general, or women in general, unless they had studies to back up their comments.

It turns out that this champion in egotism is the editor in chief of Men's Health, a magazine I've never read and now am bound to never read. What kind of doofuses buy into this stuff?

It seems to me that individuals, through trial and error, should be their own best experts in determining either how to turn someone on, or to find what turns them on. I wouldn't presume to tell you how to turn somebody on, unless that person was me. And I have to suspect that this article is really about what turns David Zinczenko on: a tall dirty sweaty baseball cap wearing automaton that can reconfigure her software while saying duh. Maybe that describes a secret someone that works at Men's Health!

What are your candidates for the worst monster movies of all time?

The FIAE 2007 - International Festival of Erotic Animation will be held between the 6th and 8th of November 2007.

The great thing about blogging is that anybody can do it, as long as they have internet access and an interest to learn the basics on how to do it.

A good thing about blogging is that the news media - a population which pretends to be not privileged when it clearly is - provides greater public access to blogs and bloggers than the bloggers can reach themselves, in terms of spreading information and content.

The worst thing about blogging, at this point, is the lack of ability of the news media in discerning the good bloggers and the asshole dipshit bloggers. Just because someone can post something on a blog, and a hundred other similar minded bloggers link to it, does not make it a valid news story or angle. Some members of the media clearly understand this. Some don't. Some may understand this but don't care because of political viewpoint. Some may understand this but want to burn bloggers' credibility by publishing blogger crap.

The news media should have a simple rule of thumb for reporting on "blogger stories" - follow the specifics of the story and not the viewpoint of the story. Dig for yourselves, find out for yourself. Quit piggybacking on bloggers, because half the time you're laying with swine.

Every year I see stories like this:

BigPumpkins.com congratulates Joe Jutras on his 1689 pound pumpkin weighed at the Topsfield Fair GPC weigh-off in Topsfield, MA on September 29, 2007.

I have questions about growing such a pumpkin.

1 - What is the pumpkin used for, afterwards?
2 - What is the cost to grow such a pumpkin, per pound?
3 - Does USDA provide financial support to grow gigantic pumpkins?

I don't know about you, but I keep waiting to see a big lawsuit against Comcast or some other humungous ISP for the heavyhanded blocking of email in an effort to reduce spam. Just a matter of time, IMHO...

Halloween time!

Coughs, hacking, and snot snuffing in the next few weeks. Today is October 9th, and it's 90 freakin' degrees outside. Friday it will drop to 45 degrees.

To keep you reading.

Heading north, due to global warming.

Bluetongue, an insect-borne virus that affects goats, sheep and cattle, is spreading fast through Europe and may become endemic in many European Union countries, the bloc's top public health official said Tuesday.

Once present only in southern Europe, the disease has recently been detected in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Luxembourg and Britain, and the spread shows no signs of stopping, EU health commissioner Markos Kyprianou said. Some 14,000 outbreaks have been registered in this region this year alone, he said.

Bluetongue is not harmful to humans, but can be fatal for ruminant animals, especially sheep. It is transmitted by certain species of midges — small flies — once common only in Mediterranean climes. Experts say the insect has moved further north due to global warming. Various new forms of the virus have been detected in the EU.

There's something - actually lots of things - about Dick Morris that I just find disgusting. Disturbing. Depressing. And I'm sure several other D - for Dick - words that I won't bother finding in the thesaurus.

But here's a bit of a mystery. Somebody went to school with this human gag reflex, and somebody lived down the street near him when they were growing up, and somebody hated his whiney-ass shit way back at college. Where are these people? They could provide a service to America, by filling in the picture of how people like Dick Morris become Dick Morris... sort of a way to prevent such personality outrages in the future.

But you never see anyone from ole' Stuyvesant High School in New York City commenting about how Morris got his ass kicked all the time. I don't know if such a thing happened, although based on what I see of him as an adult it's hard to imagine that it didn't happen. But where is the backfill - the upchuck - on people like Dick Morris? They have a history - a history that helps define how they came to be the way they are - how come that history never finds its way to the internet?

Dick Morris, Fear Peddler.

Honestly, do his relatives even admit they're related to him? Where does he go for Thanksgiving? Who would want such a national shame showing up at family celebrations?

Perhaps Dick Morris should be given an hour long program on a national broadcast network with no limitations on what he can speak about. It may be the only way we can unite our nation towards a future in which such disgusting human being practices are mocked and ignored.

Have some Starz.

Why do government offices close for Columbus Day?

Ambrosia's Somewhere I've Never Travelled was up. I forgot how good they were. Yes, it's goody-goody pop, sometimes, but it still sits well, although I might be biased by the memories that go with their music.

They also have one of my favorite song lines in a song: And My Front Brain... Would Not Accept... My Thinker.

You know the tune...

Oh! You better not hope,
You better not try,
You better not root,
I'm telling you why:

Charlie Manuel's Stayin' In Town

He's making a list,
He's checking it twice,
He's gonna find out
who's naughty or nice.

Charlie Manuel's Stayin' In Town

He sees pitchers when they're balking,
He knows when they're real wild.
He knows when they've been bad or good,
But he doesn't care, they're going to pitch!

So, You better not hope,
You better not try,
You better not root,
I'm telling you why:

Charlie Manuel's Stayin' In Town

Chokie old bats,
Swing and a miss
Weakly ground into
cake double plays...

Charlie Manuel's Stayin' In Town

Rubber armed vets
that waddle and flop,
7 third basemen
none hit worth crap.

Charlie Manuel's Stayin' In Town

The kids in Philly Fan Land
will have a dental jubilee.
They're going to gnash their teeth about
David Montgomery...

Oh! You better not hope,
You better not try,
You better not root,
I'm telling you why:

Charlie Manuel's Staying,
Charlie Manuel's Staying,
Charlie Manuel's Staying,

In Town!

Some teenagers, unfortunately, are so stupid that they ought to go to jail on the first offense.

Howard County police say someone has been firing a BB or pellet gun at kids waiting for a school bus in Columbia.

It's happened the past two mornings at the same bus stop. Police believe the culprit is a teenager.

Two children were grazed by pellets. Their injuries weren't serious.

But in addition to that, this is really a case where parental instincts should be tolerated, if not expected. If a parent of a child at that bus stop were to somehow catch a teenager in the act of doing this, and proceeded to kick the living crap out of that teenager, well, it doesn't seem to me to be something that society ought to greatly surprised about.

Sure didn't take long for The Bears to be the big story once again in Chicago.

Interesting read.

Because those pet names are not popular today.

(Photo credit to wordwise. The Spot is now just a memory)

Try to beat that.

It had to be yesterday. Chris Matthews interviewed by his wife, Kathleen. The whole attitude of the show seemed to be that Chris Matthews was some kind of WISE MAN, and it was time to bathe in his wisdom.

So what are your favorite horror movies of all time?

There is a point where becoming "richer" really doesn't mean anything - so what is the point?

I wish I could see your face when you use this blog.

2,600 members of the Minnesota National Guard spent almost two years deployed in Iraq. It was the longest deployment of any ground combat unit.

When they returned to the States, they found out that they were — JUST BARELY — not qualified for the educational benefits they thought they'd be receiving under the G.I. Bill.

Sometimes it is hard to believe how steeped in wrongness this government can be towards the people they depend on most.

A few years ago I photographed my man breasts for this cause. Bloggers are still giving to Boobiethon, I see.

The Republican Party's disconnect goes all the way to their logo.

It's funny what we can learn from the people in our lives.

Borborygmi.

We have war criminals in the White House.

A federal judge in California certified a class action lawsuit against Target Corp brought by plaintiffs claiming the discount retailer's Web site is inaccessible to the blind, according to court documents.

Crowds at antiwar rallies in Washington have dwindled even as U.S. opinion has turned against the war in Iraq, as organizers feud and participants question the effectiveness of the street protests.

Honestly, I think the protest "industry" could use a big shakeup and heavy dose of new creativity. The idea that people need to band together in one place, at one time, to listen to speakers say the same thing we're all thinking, seems to be one of diminishing returns. We're no longer looking for solidarity. We're looking for results. Do protest gatherings stop the war? Not yet...

The idea that we have to do "something" is only the first step toward doing something "effective". We've passed the "doing something" stage. It's time to be effective.

This infusion of creativity ought to focus on punishment and reward in the economic sense, and ought to collaborate with the power of the individual at their home location. Make it easy for protesters to protest. Make it easy for protesters to share their message.

Remember peace signs, both the circular and the two finger salute? Remember how they became symbols for ending the Vietnam War, that when somebody wore it, you knew where they stood, and it wasn't about winning or losing the war, but about seeking peace? Where is that symbolism now? Where is the new imagery for seeking the greater good by the protest community, imagery that can be worn and waved and commercialized and spread throughout the country in ways far more effective than protest days?

We have to get our heads around to win the peace here in the United States. We can fight a war we can't possibly finish with anything clearly defined as "victory", or we can find the peace in our nation, and by example, return to sharing that knowledge with other nations, including Iraq.

I see where Mamie Van Doren is getting into the wine biz. Boutique wine business, I guess it is. I'd buy a bottle if I could afford it, but I'm sure there are plenty of folks that are used to paying that amount for wine. Good luck, Mamie!

(btw, there are lots of songs out there with the word "wine" in the title...)

'Tis the season.

Wouldn't that make a great song title?

Ah, a favorite 80s album - The Smithereens' Especially for You. Behind the Wall of Sleep is a great, hooky, song. Same with Blood and Roses, and pretty much the whole album. Of course, my favorite is White Castle Blues, if only because of the tinny recording effect.

I really don't like, nor care, about Rush Limbaugh. If people are so up in arms about what Limbaugh said, then make your point to Clear Channel. Screw the phone call complaints. You could better make your point by pasting a photo of Limbaugh to a paper plate, taking a dump on the plate and leaving it at the nearest Clear Channel station that carries him.

I know I'd like to see the reaction of the news media coverage on that political statement.

We're thinking about taking a trip to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland later this fall - late enough that all the leaves will be on the ground. What else is great to take kids to do or see in Cleveland?

Which of the following tattoos, if you had it prominently displayed on your arm, is more likely to get you in a fight?

or

I'm not quite sure how you can effectively tie in a horrifying yet sexy experience in a Halloween Haunted House, but these folks are claiming to try. The ability to scare doesn't seem to be a requirement for employment:

Do you look good in a bikini? Are you an exhibitionist? Do you want people to LUST for you?

Then working at Haunt XXX might be the place for YOU in October.

I don't know, I don't find bikinis or exhibitionists scary, unless, they're the 600 pound variety of bikini wearer or exhibitionist. I might scream at that.

Yesterday I listened to The Chameleons' "Script of the Bridge". It was okay. Just okay, though, to my ears.

It's funny how many Amazon reviews of almost any album you select has such terms as:

masterpiece
top ten for (whatever)
most underrated

I'm sure you'll find these, or similar superlatives, here.

For our small business, we need to make copies of documents, usually about every quarter, to send to our accountant. Copiers are expensive and really unnecessary to own, so we use one of the machines at the local UPS Store.

I say usually every quarter, but sometimes I get behind, and I had about 6 months of documents to copy today. I went to the UPS store, and although I've known that they replaced their old machines sometime in the recent past, I've not had to do this task on the new machines before.

The old machines were able to work with pieces of paper 8 and a half by 11 inches, and frankly, had just about no problem with any document that was 8.5 inches wide, period.

The new machines are another story. They're full of sensors, even more than the last ones, and a feed of every size of paper requires a source tray of that size of paper, or so it seems. A lot of the items I'm copying have detachable invoices, and they print these on a regular 8 and a half by 11, but after detaching for payment, this leaves you with a smaller than 11 inch long document.

Which completely baffles these new copiers with their feeders.

It just seems plain silly to put such machines in a UPS Store. Frankly, it seems ridiculous to even make such machines in the first place, because it's pretty clear that it's too much information that's preventing the efficient feeding and copying. When you throw into the equation the bewildering number of cryptic items to choose from on the touchpanel control of the copier, it's clear that this is not a machine for the less-than-occasional user. It's a seemingly anti-intuitive placement of technology that doesn't fit the user population.

Why would a group pay Ann Coulter $30,000 for a luncheon speech to less than 500 people? You could probably buy each person 3 or more of her books instead, and they'd all at least have some campfire starter.

Why would anyone trust anyone in that group to ever make any economic decisions in government? They clearly do not know how to maximize the use of a dollar.

The mass appeal of this entertainer escapes me. I could see why some people think he's funny, I guess, but then again I recognize that some folks are humor-deficient. In a world where probably 2/3rds of all comedians are funnier than him, why is he popular?

It was a beautiful day for the event last Saturday at Penn State. It seemed a little more crowded than in previous years that we've went, which made it harder to see the live insect displays. The photo may be a bit misleading, it's not only an indoor event. This will probably be the last year we go, since our oldest has gone three time and our youngest twice, and the novelty of eating cooked bugs can only entice so many times. Well, that and looking at all the scorpions - both of our kids have some sort of fascination about the scorpions.

One suggestion to Penn State: allow credit cards for the sale of swag such as shirts, you'll sell a lot more. We forgot that it was cash only, and didn't have enough for two shirts, so we ended up buying none.

I swear that in the past two weeks I've probably been asked a dozen times:

Have you been to the new Wegmans on the Pike?

I am the groceries buyer in our house. I actually kind of like doing it - not the shopping experience, but just getting the food for the family each week, being able to pick up stuff not put on the list by the official Lister in our household, and checking things out.

I am not a shopper, though. I hate going to a new grocery store and learning a new lay of the land. I won't go down every aisle just for the hell of it - only if there's something down there we need to buy. A grocery shopping trip that takes over an hour is, in my mind, a failure in time management.

Which brings me back to Wegmans. It is sold as an "experience". You can spend hours at Wegmans, there are restaurants and god-knows-what there. That's all good and fine, and eventually I'll get over there, but that selling message really is countereffective to me.

Karns on the Carlisle Pike would be the best grocery in the area, hands down, if they could just improve their produce section by a LOT and improve their processed food selections by a little. Their meat department is legendary. Of course, one of the main reasons I really like Karns is that it is fast to get in and out of, and that's because it is relatively small compared to the supergroceries, and that it is very rarely crowded. If Karns made these improvements, both of those advantages might go away.

Giant on Market Street has much better produce than Karns, and more choices in almost everything, but that comes with a cost: cost. Plus, I don't know, I really am not a fan of requiring "bonus cards" for discounts, unless the discounts are really, really noticeable in the final tabulation. I think the bonus card discounts are pretty ordinary at Giant. And Giant's meat prices suck. THEY SUCK.

So right now, we look at the list - if there's a lot of meat, I go to Karns, a lot of produce, I go to Giant, and if there's a lot of both, we either take a hit on cost or quality. Will Wegmans change this equation? They'll have to offer more than "the experience" to do so.

Honestly, why the hell is Bush bumbling into Central Pennsylvania right now? What did The Jay Group have to do to get him out here? Will Bush even understand what they do?

Chicago Bears fans know, there's a problem with the offense. And fingers are pointing at offensive coordinator Ron Turner:

Finally, offensive coordinator Ron Turner has to go. This man cannot put together a decent string of plays.

and

Dear Ron,

Oh yea, I will be extreemely happy to see your ass get booted.

and

What the hell, let’s fire Ron Turner and hire, well, anybody to coach this offense.

And the heat is only starting up. A few more losses in the next month and there will be effigies.