Entries from July 2005The Posts You Asked For

Check out Eric Myer Photography’s “Sterotypes” page — stereotype having a nice double meaning in this case. Play around to generate some subtly disturbing images.

» Click to read... «

Hopefully with the passage of the Energy Bill, the oil and gas companies will be able to use the $2.7 billion in tax breaks they’re receiving to get on their financial feet.
The good thing is that our country’s finances are now solid enough that we can afford to give these kinds of tax breaks. [...]

» Click to read... «

Get this: The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) not only violated the law (specifically the Privacy Act) by collecting personal information about passengers from commercial databases, it also broke the promise it made not to do that.
One specific violation cited by the General Accounting Office (GAO) was that the TSA didn’t inform passengers about what it [...]

» Click to read... «

Next up: “Land, baby, land.”
PS: No comment, yet, at the mission to the International Space Money Pit. :)

» Click to read... «

Goes the lede from a Reuters story:
The House of Representatives, ignoring protests from civil liberties groups, renewed the USA Patriot Act on Thursday mostly along party lines, to make permanent the government’s unprecedented powers to investigate suspected terrorists.
What’s wrong? The Patriot Act is not designed for investigating suspected terrorists. It’s being used for whatever law [...]

» Click to read... «

From the LA Times (and others):
Crash Victim’s Mourners Have Similar Accident
From Times Wire Reports
Two mourners who rode an all-terrain vehicle to the funeral for a man killed in an ATV accident were slightly injured in a similar accident as they were leaving.
Jimmy Spry and Maggan Phillips were not wearing helmets when Spry lost control [...]

» Click to read... «

Beautiful San Diego.

» Click to read... «

Has Google gone too far?

» Click to read... «

Wall Street to Costco: “You’re not screwing your employees enough.”

» Click to read... «

Looking to get away from it all for a few days — all, that is, except the low-level radiation?
Consider a trip here.

» Click to read... «

Sure, when I write about the downsides to ethanol, no one cares. But when the AP comes out with an article, it’s all over the place.

» Click to read... «

Karl Rove was the guy behind campaigns that spread false information about a variety of opposition candidates — flyers claiming that candidates wanted to ban the Bible, for example, or questioning whether someone was gay.
And now the Republicans are claiming that he’s on the short end of a smear campaign?
Pot. Kettle. Black.

» Click to read... «

Working in a newsroom has some distinct advantages, most obviously getting at least some of the local news earlier than most other people.
What I like a lot about it, though, is being able to get more than what’s in the paper. And it leads me to some questions about what a newspaper should provide.
For example [...]

» Click to read... «

Let me get this straight. No one says much of anything about any of the versions of the Grand Theft Auto games when they’re played without modification.
You can, for example, my friend Eric tells me, hire a prostitute, pay her, then kill her and take her money.
Not a peep.
Nor is there uproar about the [...]

» Click to read... «

I have to do a longer post on this when I can cite more examples, but here’s a good one to start off with.
The results of an AP/Ipsos poll today shows that President Bush has an overall approval rating of just 42 percent, and a disapproval rating of 56 percent. No shock here.
But get this: [...]

» Click to read... «

So HP6 comes out tomorrow at midnight. Or tonight at midnight. Whatever you want to call it.
Anyway, it’s been two years since the last book, which — if you haven’t re-read all five in that time — might mean you’ll feel a bit lost when you start Half-Blood Prince.
Conveniently, you can catch up quickly. (And [...]

» Click to read... «

» Click to read... «

From yesterday’s afternoon White House press briefing, we have this exchange between WH press secretary Scott McClellan and a reporter named “John”:
McCLELLAN: John, you can keep jumping in, but I’m going to try to keep going to other people in this room, as well. And we can have constructive dialogue here, I think, but that’s [...]

» Click to read... «

I need help finding the right keyboard.
I know, it’s silly. But the keyboards that come with today’s computers are either A) cheap-o junky things with mushy keys, or B) overly complex things with too many keys. Or both.
I am a huge fan of old IBM keyboards. They’re called Model Ms, or “buckling spring” keyboards. When [...]

» Click to read... «

So Karl Rove leaked the name of a CIA operative. That’s a federal crime, and a serious one.
The White House denied knowing about this, which is now an obvious lie.
The president said he would fire the leaker. He has not.
Considering how bent out of shape some people got when Clinton lied about having sex in [...]

» Click to read... «