And this is before the storm

It's supposed to snow again tomorrow, pretty much off and on all day. Or rain. Or sleet. Or whatever else they can dream up. We seem to be, at the moment, right on the line and so I guess we just wait and see.

Yuppies and immigrants!

A post on Boston.com...

After seeing how the city responded to the season's first winter storm, do you think Boston's reputation for stoicism and moxie in the face of nasty weather has taken a hit?

...(there was a traffic snarl on the Interstate caused by people trying to get home from work) draws this response:

Well with an influx of yuppies and immigrants and the dissolving of the true working class in the city, I'd say that Boston has definately softened up a ton. If you ever go to a Patriots game in the snow its not the rich season ticket holders who stick through the weather for every single minute of the game, but its the working class guys that are willing to buy up those tickets from the bums that cant handle a little snow. Damn yuppies.

Yeah!

Chicken what?

Oh Dude, I'm looking at this box of onion soup mix stuff - yeah, I know, I deserve what I get but still - right here on the list of ingredients is chicken powder. Whoa. I don't know what chicken powder is and I don't want to, but somehow I think I'm not gonna see no Chicken Powder Cordon Bleu on any menu worth mentioning, anytime soon.

On the other hand, of course, if I did see Chicken Powder Cordon Bleu on a menu that would be worth mentioning. So let's just hope it doesn't happen, OK?

And please, please tell me they don't have cow powder too.

Taserware!

Pack up your Tupperware, and get ready for a new kind of party.

Dana Shafman, founder of Shieldher Inc., has recently started sponsoring Taser parties, giving women a chance to buy Tasers for $300, or $350 with a laser beam to help with aiming.

Shafman's parties allow women to get together to discuss concerns and learn about the Taser C2, the newest consumer Taser that is similar to the device police officers use. "I felt that we have Tupperware parties and candle parties to protect our food and house, so why not have a Taser party to learn how to protect our lives and bodies," Shafman said....

Debi McMahon was excited to get her Taser activated.

"I feel like I'm 6 feet tall and 250 pounds. I'm going to buy one for my mom. It's going to be her 81st birthday present."

(Arizona Republic)

And they're afraid of Hillary?

The torture President

Bush is now fully owning Abu Ghraib. That, I guess, is one helpful result of flushing out what this president has done. At the time, of course, he expressed shock at the techniques exposed by the photographs at Abu Ghraib. Now he is declaring them legal and necessary.

(Andrew Sullivan)

The national sport

On the Los Angeles Times' Web site, one reader wrote, "I could care less about fair play as long as these overpaid athletes entertain me." On The Commercial Appeal in Memphis' Web site, someone said, "No one cares about this story," while another wrote, "All these guys are cheaters."

(AP)

Days of infamy

The legislation, part of a measure authorizing the government's intelligence activities for 2008, had been approved a day earlier by the House and sent to the Senate for what was supposed to be final action. The bill would require the CIA to adhere to the Army's field manual on interrogation, which bans waterboarding, mock executions and other harsh interrogation methods.

(AP)

When did torture become "harsh methods"? In my lifetime we've executed people for doing stuff like this. Now, according to Lindsay Graham (R-Ministry of Truth) it's become a "program" that is "lawful and helps the country." If we could rehabilitate Republicans that thoroughly we might even get ourselves out of this mess some day.

When does "paperwork reduction" become "destroying evidence"?

Behold, the Bush Administration in chart form: Federal spending on paper shredding has increased more than 600 percent since George W. Bush took office. This chart, generated by usaspending.gov, the U.S. government's brand spanking new database of federal expenditures, shows spending on "contracts for paper shredding services" going back to 2000.

You be the judge.

I'll just keep moving, thanks

I'll must keep moving, thanks, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

Don't it though

Marine Lance Cpl. Delano Holmes has been found guilty of negligent homicide, but not of unpremeditated murder, for stabbing an Iraqi soldier 44 times. Sorta gives a new meaning to the word negligent.

(WIIIAI)

Never woulda guessed

Unfortunately timed

Boston and its environs seized up at the first sight of snow yesterday, as an unfortunately timed and unusually intense storm sent thousands of commuters racing from their jobs, virtually in unison, only to endure a gridlock of epic frustration.

(Boston Globe)

Unfortunately timed as in what, it happened in December? Come to think of it, it's not quite winter yet, is it? So can we get a penalty call on this?

Long, long past time for these guys to go

WASHINGTON--The US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay has been caught conducting covert propaganda attacks on the internet. The attacks, exposed this week in a report by the government transparency group Wikileaks, include deleting detainee ID numbers from Wikipedia last month, the systematic posting of unattributed "self praise" comments on news organization web sites in response to negative press, boosting pro-Guantanamo stories on the internet news site Digg and even modifying Fidel Castro's encyclopedia article to describe the Cuban president as "an admitted transexual" [sic].

(Wikileaks)

And no Get Out of Jail Free card, either.

So I was just gonna say...

...in fact I just did say, in a to-myself kinda way, if anything else can go wrong today it will, when I get an email announcing the office I work in is closed for the afternoon. Snow. Which means there's no class this afternoon because that's where it is. Or would be. If it weren't closed.

Meanwhile I've spent all morning trying unsuccessfully to install an operating system on an old iBook and the most recent try is just finishing now which, the fact that I have the afternoon off, probably means it won't work this time either. Because now I have all afternoon to work on it some more. Because the office is closed.

Maybe I should go out and get some groceries before I have to close too.

JIC you thought the "debates" were about finding a good candidate

Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D) is being excluded from this week’s Iowa presidential debate because he has not rented office space in the Hawkeye State, his campaign said Wednesday.

The Des Moines Register informed the campaign that Kucinich is not invited because the newspaper determined “that a person working out of his home did not meet our criteria for a campaign office and full-time paid staff in Iowa,” the campaign said.

(The Hill)

Don't go

Don't go, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

Still not depressed enough? Is that what's troubling you, Bunky?

Well we can fix it - or rather Project Censored can, with its just-released report on "News That Didn't Make the News" over the past two years.

Watch your step

Watch your step, originally uploaded by tedcompton.

I spent the afternoon about 20 miles east of here, on the other side of the river and closer to the coast, and they've got ice everywhere. In fact it seems to be getting icier here as well because every day hovers right around the freezing point, just warm enough to melt the surface, cold enough to refreeze it overnight. But there the tips of the pines are frosted with ice, the sidewalks are nearly unusable, and you'd better have a real good reason if you want to use these steps.

And freezing rain is in the forecast for tomorrow, followed on Thursday by snow.

Sort of like the mole in Whack-a-Mole

According to several media reports, Wolfowitz has been offered a position as chairman of the International Security Advisory Board -- formerly known as the Arms Control and Nonproliferation Advisory Board -- a prestigious State Department panel. The 18-member panel, which has access to highly classified intelligence, advises Rice on disarmament, nuclear proliferation, WMD issues and other matters.

(Media Transparency)

Wolfie! The former DOD Iraq-war cheerleader who got booted out of the World Bank, handed off to the American Enterprise Institute - apparently some sort of mole-refurbishing service - has now been recycled, good as new, into the State Department, where he's going to "advise" on, among "other matters" (did you get that part?) "WMD issues."

Come to think of it, Wack-a-Mole is a lot more fun. Also safer.

Seasonal malaise

If you were planning on getting a Talking Jesus Action Figure this Christmas (or whatever) you're almost out of luck. Walmart has completely sold out of the toy and Target.com has "very limited supply," according to the manufacturer's spokesperson, Joshua Livingston.

(The Consumerist)

Thought you'd want to know.

And another thing. If I hear that freakin' drum song one more time, I'm not kidding here, I'm gonna throw something. It's driving me bananas.

I actually have a little stash of Christmas music (yeah, I know, me) that lives on my iPod in December - a little bit of Lou Rawls, Nat "King" Cole, Mel Tormé, Sophie Milman, Barbara and Ella and Vince Guaraldi's "Charlie Brown" album but who can hear that stuff when there's somebody's easy-listening country & western version of the freakin' drum song blasting out of the ceiling is what I want to know. Nobody.

The only non-violent option is to drown the music out with something that's not music, which is here.

Pretty much, the answer is no

I can't use the Blogger composing tool from the phone. Also (from the
phone) I can read Google docs but not create or edit them; read and
create Google notes but not edit. I can post to the blog by email. And
I can spend a whole lot of time. Go figure.

(iPhoned in)

So who says there's no good news?

It's 30 freakin' degrees out there and there's freezing rain and we'll be spending half the day chipping ice off windshields but hey, no mosquitos. So that's pretty good. Anyway, I work afternoons this week so by the time I have to go out it could be, I don't know, 32º. Or even 33º. And still no mosquitos. Life is good.

(Graphic from Accuweather)