Watchin' the wrong pan. The rice was fine but the beans boiled over,
Meanwhile, there's hardly any better way to spend a lazy summer afternoon than cranking some Zydeco through the iPod and cooking up a big jambalaya.
Make a little mess? Who cares?
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BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Commanders can expect a "day of pain" once the top U.S. general in Iraq reviews a report that finds they failed to act on complaints their troops killed 24 civilians at Haditha, a U.S. military official said on Saturday.
US military ready for "pain" over Iraqi killings | Reuters.com
Well, I guess it's still better than years and years of pain, though. More or less.Blogged with Flock
"I plan to tell them this is not the first time somebody good has been falsely accused and even crucified,'' Lawson said today in an interview before leaving for Aspen.Lay was convicted in May of six counts of fraud and conspiracy leading to, among other consequences, loss of 5,000 Enron jobs and $1billion in employee pensions.
"Just like Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy, my hope is that people will view Ken Lay in a much more positive light after his death. Even though people say he's a robber and a crook and that it's a good thing he's dead, we have the right to tell his family we've seen this (vilification) before, and history can be kind.''
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I don't know, you'd think I could keep up on things better in a town this small but, whatever, "Pioneer Days" or "Valley Days" or "Dog Days Days," something like that, one of those. The kind of day when you put all your stuff out on the sidewalk. And sit in the sun.
We made progress by encouraging the spread of ethanol. And I think if you were to look at the facts, ethanol has gone from low market penetration to pretty significant market penetration in selected parts of the country, relatively speaking....
Press Conference by the President
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This morning we got some good news -- the nation added 121,000 new jobs for the month of June.
Press Conference by the President
The count of new jobs added to the economy in June did mark an improvement from the 92,000 new positions logged in May — the fewest in seven months. But it still fell short of economists' forecasts for an increase of around 175,000.
Payrolls climb in June; wages increase - Yahoo! News
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The adhesive on the back of the stamps will be infused with flavours such as Cookies & Cream, Macadamia Nut Brittle and Strawberry Cheesecake.
Stamped with flavours - Yahoo! News UK
Errata: OK, Austria. Only two letters different. So it's pretty much the same, isn't it?Blogged with Flock
"He seemed to me very independent, very serious, but at the same time a boy is always vulnerable. He was very sweet. I'll be honest, I felt an urge to squeeze him like a kitten and that led to the gesture that I made, there was nothing behind it really," he said, smiling.
Putin explains kissing child's stomach
Nothing behind it. Indeed.Blogged with Flock
ARPAIO: They were stealing the white underwear several years ago, smuggling it out of the jail. So I dyed the underwear pink because they hate pink, especially in this county they hate pink. Why give them a color they like?Ahhh. Right. Of course.
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MR. ERELI: I think as I said, Mexico has a vibrant and dynamic democracy and Mexican institutions are fully capable of dealing with any -- you know, with any irregularities and ensuring the principles of rule of law and transparency.
Daily Press Briefing -- June 30
What the hell is a "deputy spokesman," anyway? Seems like a -- you know, dopey job title.Blogged with Flock
China says it has little leverage on North - Boston.com
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Displayed on library lawn in Turners Falls, MA, flags represent US dead in Iraq, Afghanistan.
Far from taking his ideas as a joke, an Amsterdam zoo had its lawyer threaten Balai with a defamation suit after his website depicted fish from the zoo bearing the brand name of a frozen fish company.
Fake agency offers ads on hookers' thighs - Yahoo! News
"A Dutch design student bored with conventional advertisements has set up a fake online agency offering advertising space for beer, cars and TV stations on prostitutes' thighs and cleavage," says this Reuters story (above).
For a nice little movie of the "beachvertising" scheme, click here.
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Happy July 4, fireworks or no. They were postponed here, by rain.(Coney Island photo from Wikipedia.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.
Subject to disclaimers.)
"This incident raises the disquieting possibility that the MPAA considers exposure to Christian themes more dangerous for children than exposure to gratuitous sex and violence," [House Majority Whip] Blunt said in a letter to MPAA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dan Glickman.
CNN.com - Christian film's PG rating troubles Congress - Jul 3, 2006
Desperately seeking something disquieting to campaign on, the Rs in the House have seized upon the case of a "Christian-themed" movie about a football coach that received a PG rating from the MPAA. The movie did, that is. Not the coach. And threw in a little gratuitous sex and violence to spice things up. The Rs did, that is. Not the coach. The coach is just along for the ride.But the MPAA claims the PG rating was due to "a mature discussion about pregnancy," something no kiddie should just happen upon, leaving the Rs to wonder what's so PG about a stork.
Meanwhile I'm just wishing the MPAA would add another rating to their already formidable list: GF, for "Grownups, Forgetaboudit."
By the way, why do they call them "whips," anyway? That sounds like a little gratuitous sex and violence right there.
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"Finders-keepers may be the law of the playground, but it's certainly not the law of Massachusetts," Littlefield's lawyer, Jeffrey Scuteri, told The Eagle-Tribune of Lawrence.
Newbury woman, roofers feud over 'buried treasure' - Boston.com
Bummer. I suppose that applies to pulling pigtails too, huh? How is a guy ever gonna meet cute girls? (Actually the coolest thing to do with pigtails was dip them in inkwells, but then they quit putting inkwells in the desks and there went that sport, right there.)
Ah, well. progress is progress, and you gotta take the bitter with the sweet. And in the case of the "buried treasure" (not really buried but put in cans and hidden years ago in the eaves of a barn by the present owner's great uncle, and thereafter forgotten), progress has multipled its value by a factor of 100: the face value of the money in the cans is about $7,000, but as a collection it may be worth more than $700,000. So that's a lot of sweet part right there. The bitter part is Jeffrey Scuteri, who says the money belongs to the woman who owns the barn and not to the two guys who found it there.
Or, I guess they're arguing about the money. Maybe the guys just want to keep the cans. They're really fun to kick.
technorati tags:Progress
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ROME (Reuters) - An Italian man escaped from house arrest and begged police to put him in jail because he could not bear living with his grandfather, his lawyer said Monday.
Man prefers jail to being at home with grandpa - Yahoo! News
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Most Britons see America as a cruel, vulgar, arrogant society, riven by class and racism, crime-ridden, obsessed with money and led by an incompetent hypocrite.
Allows a spokesman for the American Embassy (in England), "we bear some of the blame for not successfully communicating America's extraordinary dynamism."
See? Cleared that right up.
technorati tags:word-crimes
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Detainees' Lawyers Oppose More Filings
Newsvine - Detainees' Lawyers Oppose More Filings
Whew. For a minute there I was thinking about that scene in Marathon Man. You know, the one with the dentist.Blogged with Flock
"We already knew that the programs reduced crash rates of young drivers, but we didn't know which programs were most effective in reducing risk," said Susan P. Baker, a professor at the school. From the study, "it is clear that more comprehensive programs have the greatest effect," she said.
TheBostonChannel.com - News - Study: Restricting Teen Drivers Reduces Fatalities
So then, more comprehensive programs work better than less comprehensive programs? Who woulda thunk?
technorati tags:Academia
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Still, for all the talk of reconciliation, both sides describe the relationship between arguably the two highest-profile leaders of the Republican Party as almost entirely professional...
A New Partnership Binds Old Republican Rivals - New York Times
Count me almost entirely impressed.technorati tags:Politics
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However, 2004 XP14 has been classified as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid, or PHA, by the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Mass., because of the proximity of its orbit to Earth and its estimated size, The Scotsman said.
Forget farmer's tan. This is gonna be more like sidewalk burn.But before we allow the nannies to trample over our recreational – not to mention our civil – liberties on the holiday intended to celebrate liberty itself, let’s consider a few relevant points.
FOXNews.com - The Right to Bear Firecrackers... - Blog | Blogs | Popular Blogs | Video Blogs
The "safety nannies," this guy (some Fauxie named Steven Malloy) reports, want to ban consumer fireworks because some kiddies might get hurt. On the other hand, the safety studs point out kids get hurt anyway, so what the hell.
Personally, after four open-window hot evenings of [illegal, in this state] consumer fireworks here I'm just getting tired of the noise. I only hope they, the neighbors, run out of the stuff before Friday because I want to watch Monk.
technorati tags:Opinion, Rights
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For us, this is the first time we've heard of a city actually using a piece of uncommissioned art to spark debate. Very interesting, and smart, of them to tap into the power and popularity of Banksy's work at a time where most people's opinions of "what is art" and what isn't is being redefined by artists like Banksy and others.
Wooster Collective: Bristol City Council Reaches Out To The Public
Personally, I'd vote for art. And pretty cool art, too. Go look for yourself (click above).technorati tags:Art
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Since his creation June 2, Flat Dave has joined Real Dave's mom at the dentist's office, attended a motorcycle show, posed with a decidedly three-dimensional dancer from a local gentleman's club and lounged for hours at a relative's graduation party.
Meet Flat Dave. He's a real stand-up guy. | Chicago Tribune
Flat Dave is a two-dimensional cardboard likeness of Real Dave, aka Thick Dave, who lives in Chicago. Thick Dave does. Flat Dave lives with Thick Dave's family over there by Iowa. Where else?
According to this Chicago Tribune (registration, alas, required, but free), Flat Dave was the brainstorm of Thick Dave's mom, who figured two dimensions were better than none, apparently, or maybe just always wanted a flat kid. In any event, Flat Dave has become quite the celebrity in the Quad Cities area - four cities (but you already figured that part out, right?) including Moline, East Moline, and a couple of others, I forget, on the Illinois-Iowa boarder. You have to actually be there, in the Quad Cities, to actually understand it, maybe.
Anyway, speaking of being easily amused.
technorati tags:Illinois, Iowa, Easily-Amused
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So I've had a couple of days to fool around with my new iPod Shuffle and it's amazingly cool. True, there are a couple of things it won't do - can't rewind a cut, and can't look on a screen to see the name of what's playing. And, of course, can't watch movies, if that's your thing (it's not mine). But it's a snap to sync, easy to tuck into a pocket (it really is smaller than a pack of gum) or wear around your neck on a string, and as a test I loaded mine (the smallest size - 512M) with two novels, two copies of the New York Times audio digest, and two dozen music tracks. With a little less entertainment, some space can be saved to use as a "thumb drive." And I found a nifty gizmo that runs the whole thing on two AAA batteries, so no more running out of power in the middle of Iowa.
Meanwhile, my old "real" iPod - somewhere between three and four years old (and yes, the battery does still work fine) - has unaccountably quit playing music but still seems to function perfectly well as a hard drive. So I spent the morning installing OS X on it. Yes, I am easily amused. But now I can boot either computer from the iPod to run diagnostics, do disk repairs, and various other geeky things, as well as back up key laptop files if necessary.
technorati tags:iPod
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Thus far, the new imprint has only one writer in its stable: Katharine DeBrecht, the pen name of a mother of three whose authorial debut, Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed!, generated major buzz--and sold some 30,000 copies--after receiving an on-air plug from Rush Limbaugh. In the wake of DeBrecht's success, Kids Ahead is moving forward with an entire Help! Mom! series. Help! Mom! Hollywood's in My Hamper! [is this really the sort of things we want the kiddies reading?] hit stores in March, Help! Mom! The Ninth Circuit Nabbed the Nativity! will be out in time for Christmas, with Help! Mom! There Are Lawyers in My Lunchbox! to follow.
I'm waiting for Help! Mom! Trickshot Wants to Take Me Hunting!
technorati tags:Books
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In an effort to fight the war on terror, the Air Force is putting up $450,000 for a three year study of...blogs.
Air Force Pours $450,000 Into Three-Year Study Of Blogs... | The Huffington Post
OK, 25 percent. How about 25 percent? How about 10 percent?At one point Comcast sent a technician to replace my cable modem/wireless router. This should have taken five minutes. Instead, when he called Comcast to activate my new modem, he was placed on hold for nearly 90 minutes. When I asked him why he was on hold for so long, he told me that phone reps were busy filling out customer service surveys. Then he fell asleep on my couch. I could have made a few suggestions for their survey.
Snakes on a Blog » Snakes on a Comcast Internet Connection
Well, old in Internet time. It's dated June 20. But then, considering the subject, what's two more weeks in the grand scheme of things? The Comcast technician did indeed fall asleep on this guy's couch and this guy, on his blog (linked above), posts a little one-minute movie of the snooze.
It's a nice, relaxing thing to watch.
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(We need something that will keep the U.S. Congress out of trouble too. They should not be allowed on the net unsupervised.)
They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a truck.
It's a series of tubes.
Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska explains the Internet in defense of net neutrality. Or maybe it's in opposition to net neutrality. Or maybe...well, never mind. Click the link or listen to the whole wacky rant here.
technorati tags:Test
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