Archive for
December, 2005
December 31st, 2005
Duffy stressed that “the leaking of classified information is a serious issue.” And he defended the use of wiretaps, warning that “Al-Qaeda’s playbook is not printed on page one, and when America’s is, it has serious ramifications.”[“White House says Justice opted to probe wiretap leak independently” (Yahoo!News)]
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Tags: warrantless wiretapping, al-Qaeda, spying on Americans, terrorism, Wag the Dog
December 31st, 2005
I ordered a home theater through Amazon.com last Wednesday. Before it had even shipped, Amazon.com dropped the price from $349.99 to $299.85, but when I contacted them about the price change, they basically said “too bad for you.”
Don’t most electronic stores have some sort of policy that protects customers when they buy big ticket items that go on sale the next day?
I’d cancel the order but it has actually shipped now and I would have to pay for the shipping back. Amazon.com also said it wouldn’t have anything to do with the return but that I’d have to
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Tags: none
December 24th, 2005
My mom and I have always said we wanted to make one of those Gingerbread Houses with all the icing and candy decorations one Christmas. We can now cross that off our lists as tried. It’s really a sad little Gingerbread House. Apparently, we’re both excellent cooks but we need some classes in cake decoration. However, it was fun since I wasn’t worrying about being perfect.
Tags: none
December 22nd, 2005
So…I left my house at 2:30am EST on Wednesday morning to be on a bus out of Portland at 3:15am EST. I arrived in Boston at 5am EST, checked my baggage after waiting in a long line, got the extra-special treatment in the Security line, had a donut and some bad coffee from the Dunkin Donuts kiosk, read a book, and boarded my plane at 6:45am EST. We then waited on the tarmac for about an hour and fortunately I slept through most of that and the take off because apparently we had engine trouble and took off
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Tags: none
December 20th, 2005
“The president does not get to pick and choose which laws he wants to follow.”
– Senator Russell Feingold, Democrat [“Bush stands by right to order spying inside US (FT.com)]
Traditionally, US law forbids the NSA and the CIA from spying inside the US. That sort of thing usually falls into the FBI’s realm of operations and then only with a court order for setting up wire taps and the like.
Yet shortly after 9/11, President Bush ordered the NSA to tap telephone conversations inside the US, supposedly targeting persons (yes, including American citizens — especially American citizens) suspected of
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Tags: politics, George W. Bush, warrantless wiretapping, NSA, spying on Americans, FBI, Russ Feingold, FISA, ACLU, CIA, Conspiracy Theories
December 20th, 2005
From Yellow Swordfish:
Why is America wanting to export US style politics to Iraq when it has imported Saddam style politics for use at home?
What a powerful question. Something I’ve been gnawing on for a few months.
Tags: Quote of the Day, politics, Iraq
December 20th, 2005
I’ve talked before about my fear of flying and how I hate to travel. I suppose the anxiety I feel about travel is really porportional to the distance and time and effort involved. Personally, I’m not particularly fond of going anywhere. I prefer to stay home; though I don’t mind being at work.
But really, there’s a lot of stress involved in going anywhere in particular. There’s the matter of dressing appropriately, make-up or no make-up, making sure you leave enough time to get ready before you must leave your house to drive somewhere…there’s more stress if
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Tags: fear of flying, stress, anxiety, travel
December 20th, 2005
I have actually. Been searching my soul this month. I’ve been having quite a bit of intraspective quiet time.
I’ve learned that I am a successful professional. I have learned that I’m content programming and analyzing though maybe I would be happier doing something else. I’m not sure what that something else would be.
I’ve accepted that I suffer from depression and general anxiety disorder and probably will my whole life. I’m sure I have mild OCD and continue to show signs of codependency though I am not now in a codependent relationship of any kind.
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Tags: Me
December 8th, 2005
Well, I apologize for my recent lack of posting. After Nano, I got distracted by real life. I’ve been ill, I’ve had a severe migraine, I had to cook gumbo and a cherry chocolate pie (recipes now at The Weekend Chef) for a holiday party, and my cats gave me The Movies computer game as an early Christmas present. 
I ended up having to go to the doctor on Friday about my digestive trouble as my throat was raw from the stomach acid that was doing it’s imitation of a volcano. I woke up choking on
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Tags: wellness, migraine
