Archive for
October, 2005
October 28th, 2005
I’ve been trying for weeks to schedule my trip to visit my family in New Mexico over Christmas but I feel like I’m banging my head against a brick wall…maybe because I’m too cheap. I really think I should only have to pay about $400 for tickets, if that, but for the most part, the tickets I’m seeing are more than $500 and as great as $715.
To complicate things, Delta stopped flying in and out of Portland this September and after today, Southwest won’t be flying in and out of Boston, if I understand the error message I get
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Tags: travel
October 28th, 2005
O.K. Now that I’ve got your attention…. 
Today’s niftiest news stories are about two very brave souls — George Takei and Emily the cat.
APPLETON, Wisconsin (AP) — When Emily the cat went missing a month ago, her owners looked for their wandering pet where she had ended up before — the local animal shelter. This week they learned Emily sailed to France.
Lesley McElhiney now figures her cat went prowling around a paper warehouse near home and ended up in a cargo container that went by ship across the Atlantic Ocean and was trucked to Nancy, a city in northeastern France
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Tags: George Takei
October 27th, 2005
So, one of my co-workers is currently theorizing that Harriet Miers’ nomination to the Supreme Court was a ruse all along. He thinks that Bush nominated a moderate who he knew would be questioned so that he could nominate a real conservative when her nomination caused enough rucus to force her to withdraw. The idea then is that we’ll be so happy to have anyone other than Miers that Congress will just rush the new person right on through the obstacle course with little whining.
Another co-worker thinks that the first co-worker is assuming Bush is smart enough to
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Tags: Harriet Miers, politics, George W. Bush, Supreme Court, Karl Rove, Patrick Fitzgerald, PlameGate, Conspiracy Theories
October 26th, 2005
I was told in Group on Monday night that I seem a lot less angry than I did that first week. In fact, I was told that I was bright and funny.
I personally like to think I’m funny. I mean, I was a stand-up comic for a bit — obviously not very successful at it as I was never in any big clubs or on Leno or Letterman, but funny enough. The irony (or is the proper word, coincidence) is that it’s all an act; at least I think it is.
You see one of the things we
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Tags: depression, anxiety, therapy
October 26th, 2005
I’ve been thinking about Donklephant’s post by Callimachus this morning called “______ Lied”. The post itself has a liberal-biased tilt, but the original column, It Wasn’t Just Miller’s Story seems to be straight reporting to me and I think it’s something that many of us die-hard anti-Iraq-War-Bill-Clinton-loving liberal try very, very hard to ignore or forget.
The truth is that the fear of Suddam Huissen’s potential to wage nuclear destruction on his neighbors and the world didn’t start in January 2001 or even after September 11, 2001.
Here are a few past headlines from The New York Times:
October 26th, 2005
One of the things I find fascinating as I watch the whole PlameGate story unfold is the focus of Main Stream Media and most blogs on the lies told to cover up that the CIA leak actually came from the White House, from near the top. No one in MSM and very few bloggers are publically questioning why Valerie Plame’s identity was leaked.
Oh, yes, I know they’re reporting that her identity was leaked in retaliation for her husband’s, Joe Wilson’s, public statements refuting their so-called evidence that Iraq had bought uranium from Nigeria.
The question people should be asking is
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Tags: politics, PlameGate, CIA, Joe Wilson, Iraq
October 26th, 2005
As we take a moment to mourn the Americans who gave their lives in Iraq, I’d like to think about the Iraqis who’ve lost their lives.
I’ve talked before about the Iraqi death tolls; for the most part, until recently no one seemed to be keeping count. I’ve seen a wide range of statistics on the subject of how many Iraqis have died since the start of the war or since the end of the war even.
Finally American Main Stream Media is talking about it; an article on Yahoo!News yesterday claims most experts estimate the number of
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Tags: American soldiers, Iraq
October 25th, 2005
This morning, listening to an NPR story about Chenney’s denial that he even knew who Joseph Wilson was before the newspaper article revealing Wilson’s wife’s identity was published and I suddenly flashed back to the Vice Presidential debate last fall:
I’m up in the Senate most Tuesdays when they’re in session. The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight.
– Vice President Dick Chenney to then-Senator Edwards, September 30, 2004 [“2004 Vice Presidential Debate”]
Of course, they’d met before…
Addressing the National Prayer Breakast, Cheney said: “Thank you. Thank you very much. Congressman Watts, Senator Edwards,
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Tags: Dick Cheney, Joe Wilson, lie
October 24th, 2005
Cory Burnell wants to set up a Christian nation within the United States where abortion is illegal, gay marriage is banned, schools cannot teach evolution, children can pray to Jesus in public schools and the Ten Commandments are posted publicly. [“Christian group wants to ‘redeem’ US states”]
Twenty-nine year-old Burnell founded Christian Exodus two years ago with the goal of redirecting the United States by “redeeming” one state at a time, starting with South Carolina.
The plan is to move 2,500 Christians (though there are only 1,000 currently in Christian Exodus) into South Carolina with a goal of relocating tens of
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Tags: Christian Zealots
October 24th, 2005
I had Dodgeball on yesterday to keep me company while I did other things. I noticed that a number of scenes were missing from the version that aired on my HBOW channel — the scene where the geeky guy and the Russian lady “get together” was completely gone and the scene where the two girls make out with Peter was sliced so that it looked like he only made out with the one girl.
I must admit I was a little surprised that HBO was editing sexy scenes from the movie considering some of the racy and often disturbing stuff
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Tags: none
October 24th, 2005
Forty-five per cent of Iraqis believe attacks against British and American troops are justified.
Eighty-two percent of Iraqis are “strongly opposed” to the presence of coalition troops.
Less than one percent of the Iraqi population believes coalition forces are responsible for any improvement in security and 67 percent of Iraqis feel less secure because of the occupation. In fact, 43 per cent of Iraqis believe conditions for peace and stability have worsened.
These are the results of a secret poll in August commissioned by Britian’s Ministry of Defense and conducted by an Iraqi university research team, who did not know the results would be used by coalition purposes.
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Tags: Iraq, poll, politics
October 24th, 2005
A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon All the King’s Horses, a blog written by a stop-loss soldier in Iraq. Coincidently, my discovery also coincided with blog publicity from Operation Truth, which named him Vet of the Week, October 13, 2005.
His story in his own words is worth sharing:
I joined the army soon after I finished college; the decision was an amalgamation of desire to serve, to belong, and to repay college debt. I wanted the challenge to see if I really could be all I could be. Our country was a vastly different place then; one
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Tags: American soldiers, Conspiracy Theories, blogs
October 24th, 2005
I certainly hope that if there is going to be an indictment that says something happened, that it is an indictment on a crime and not some perjury technicality where they couldn’t indict on the crime so they go to something just to show that their two years of investigation were not a waste of time and dollars.
– Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Meet the Press, October 2005
Quite a few Americans thought the same thing during Clinton’s administration and were highly disappointed that the huge amount of tax dollars Ken Starr spent went to nothing more than a perjury charge,
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Tags: hypocrisy, politics
October 22nd, 2005
As I watch the Traitorgate/Plamegate/ whatever-you-want-to-call-it investigation and the various related blogosphere commentary unfold, I have to wonder to myself how it will affect our country and our voters on both the left and the right. Mostly, I’m curious about those on the right who are deeply in denial. I mean, I’ve seen the commentary by some very liberal bloggers who believe that Bush could rape young boys on live tv and even still his “base” would stand by him and I wonder how close to the truth that is.
In general, over the last few months, I’ve really
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Tags: PlameGate, Republicans, politics, Patrick Fitzgerald
October 22nd, 2005
Tags: humor
October 22nd, 2005
Here in Maine, we’re getting ready to vote on whether or not to keep a newly passed law that will protect the rights of fellow Mainers based on their sexuality or preceived sexuality.
First of all, I think Question 1 is worded strangely — possibly to confuse voters as to what exactly they are voting for.
Do you want to reject the new law that would protect people from discrimination in employment, housing, education, public accommodations and credit based on their sexual orientation?
The important thing to note is that a “yes” vote would repeal the law and a “no” vote will keep
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Tags: politics, Maine, vote, Gay Rights, Christian bigotry
October 21st, 2005
The last few days, there’s been quite a buzz about how Target now is backing its pharmacists who refuse to fill valid prescriptions for emergency contraception. Personally, I’m alarmed, because like AMERICAblog’s John in DC, I’m concerned about where the line will be drawn if this continues.
I particular like the opinion piece of Dr. Erik Steele, chief medical officer of Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, that appeared in the Bangor News:
The reluctance of a pharmacist morally opposed to abortion to do anything that might result in an abortion is certainly understandable. However, a pharmacist
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Tags: Women's Rights, Pharmacies, birth control, Plan B
October 21st, 2005
- You never forget the first time you were fired; for Nora it had been an agonizingly long five minutes since her first time.
- That was when Lynn realized she had become the crazy old spinster who talks to her army of cats.
- One hundred years had passed and yet the Camerons were still goody-goodies in Angeni’s eyes; she’d have to do something about that this time.
- Jill rolled back in her chair and glared at Jim across the cube-aisle.
- The first rule of ghost hunting is never split up.
Tags: Friday Five 1rst Sentences, writing
