PSoTD

Cybersoc.com has done some digging. Give it a read.

It looks like cracksinthefacade and PSoTD both posted about the Al Gore movie, as did the Pandora's jar guy - so someone has paid to find out what people are saying about the Al Gore movie, An Inconvenient Truth. Did you post about the film? Did you get inbound links from NetVocates?

Hell, every blogger ought to have some sort of basic post about An Inconvenient Truth, and monitor their traffic to see if NetVocates shows up.

Following up on an earlier post:

When was the last time you went to you a drive-in theater?

Anyone my age probably has some fond memories of the drive-in movie theater. Cheap movies, family nights, later on it could be date nights, and make out nights, and whatever else nights. For me, first and foremost, I remember it as the cool place we went as a family when I was little to see Disney movies - Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, that kind of stuff. They came with various kinds of kids recreation - usually playgrounds - and the infamous snack bar which they constantly promoted during intermission.

Sunday night we took our kids to their first night at the Drive-In at Haars in Dillsburg.

It's the only drive-in near here anymore, as drive-ins have been in demise for decades. It's not the business model - it's the value of land as property bought in the 1950s for purposes of the drive-in eventually become surrounded with development, and the push and the offers for either commercial or residential development of the drive-in finally overwhelms the opportunity afforded with the business model. Drive-ins are sheer Americana, the confluence of America's love affairs with cars and with Hollywood, but our economy does not appreciate highly nor value heavily sheer Americana. Please don't try to tell me it does and use examples of antiques or collectibles or old houses, because the economic value isn't based on Americana but on 1) supply and demand, and 2) speculation.

My kids' generation may be the last to really know the drive-in theater. There are somewhere around 500+ left of them in this country (probably less, this list appears old).

Going to Haar's on Sunday night brought back the whole family and child value of the drive-in, and we'll go back in the near future. I want my kids to know the drive-in before it disappears from sight. Then they can tell THEIR kids about this fabulous place of fun that once entertained their generation.

The more we get this cultural/national mix going around the world, the better off we'll all be. The world should be a melting pot - and not of the global warming kind.

From the Galway Advertiser:

The idea that someone would want to settle in Ireland and make his future here would, during the 50s and even into the 70s, would have seemed astonishing to people of the older generation. The 'Irish Wake', which forms part of the nostalgia industry of the now thriving Irish Diaspora was once a tragic feature of the national experience.

And a word on the Irish Diaspora itself. Those who left Ireland during the hard times in search of work and prospects felt they had little or no choice. The enormous change now is that those who are now working in the United States, Australia, France, Japan, and elsewhere have chosen to do so. Educated, confident, proud of their heritage, today's emigrants are either temporarily so or return to Ireland on a regular basis, many with homes here.

But as a new kind of Irish emigrant has appeared, so this country has found itself dealing with the dramatic new phenomenon of immigrants from - literally - around the world, attracted by the success of the Irish economy. And the transformation of the social, cultural, and political scene has been equally dramatic. From the flourishing Brazilian community in Gort, to the Chinese takeaway in Caherciveen, the eclectic mix of African and Eastern European music, the astonishing variety of foods now available in every large city and even small town - all this eloquently attests to the diversity that now characterizes Ireland in the 21st century.

I find it hard to believe that Google couldn't find such an item.

Now Jonah is miffed about Google Doodles...

Dedicated to tonight's expected dinner:

Where was the last place you ate a taco?

Duncan has an interesting post up called The Coming Blogwars in which he recognizes that the liberal blogosphere is likely to be pretty divisive in the upcoming Democratic Party presidential primary campaign.

I guess there are two areas of concern - that the perception that "big bloggers" will have "undue influence" on the web in the campaigns is the one Eschaton focuses on, and I suppose that's a legitimate concern. There is a way to get around it, of course, but it goes hand in hand with the second concern, which is more mine than anything I've seen anywhere else.

I know people get interested in the horserace status of the campaign, and the focus of how one candidate would match up against a Republican better than another, yadda yadda yadda. I'm not. I'm sick of it. I think it sucks. I think it's that demand of result over resolve that has gotten the Democrats into the minority status it finds itself today. I'm not complaining about it as far as the candidates go, because frankly, they do have to see things that way - individually. I'm complaining about it as far as the Party goes, as far as the news media goes, and, I'm afraid, where the blogosphere is rushing towards. It is the focus on how a candidate can be most electable, as opposed as to why a candidate should be elected. I'm afraid that the Democrats haven't learned an important lesson yet - that's there's going to be disagreement and debate and division over EITHER question, and the "how" question doesn't get us a candidate that can convince non-Democrats that the candidate SHOULD be elected. Only the why question can do that. And if elected, it doesn't provide an inkling to the sizeable population that didn't vote for the candidate as to why they should support their governance. What was proved was that the candidate could be elected by the slimmest of margins. What wasn't proven was the translation of that result into governing. For the most recent example, see the current Administration. Getting elected is what Karl Rove's campaigns are all about. Governing effectively? No groundwork set.

I'd hate to see the blogosphere contribute to the problem. If we focus on why we should elect a candidate to govern - the platform, the positions, the expectations in governance, the capabilities - rather than why we should select a candidate that can be elected, then the blogosphere will be doing politics a grand benefit that history will remember. If the blogosphere acts just like the consultantocracy and the power news media, then we're no better than they, and history will probably forget us pretty damn quickly. Particularly on the liberal side, it's our choice on where to put the focus, and I hope we prove ourselves to be better than the existing power structures we've been reacting to the past several years.

He has a ways to go yet, but Drew Rosenhaus appears quite capable to earn the top position.

Over at The Dead End, Jonah Goldberg was extremely perturbed that Al Gore mentioned studying existentialists in France as a teenager. Hey, Jonah also went to Europe as a teenager, "more than a few times" (didn't everybody?) but he didn't do anything as bogus as try to learn anything! And if he did, he sure wouldn't talk about it. What kind of example is Al Gore trying to set? Doesn't Al Gore know he's never going to appeal to any right wingers with knowledge? If you want to be President of the United States, you better not be going around acting intelligent!

Nope, Jonah doesn't like discussing French existentialists one bit. Jonah likes the X-Men!! Jonah really likes the X-Men!!

Couldn't Al Gore make Jonah happy and talk about the X-Men instead of global warming?

Twit.

Elisabeth Bumiller is already calling a potential 2012 Presidential candidacy by Jeb Bush part of a "dynasty".

But Republican Party leaders continue to talk seriously about a continuation of the dynasty, a Bush III administration, with Jeb as a candidate in 2012 or 2016, when the memory of the current president's dismal poll ratings will be less of a factor. That, at least, is what happened the last time around: President George Bush's unpopularity at the end of his term in 1992 did not hurt his eldest son when he ran for president eight years later.

The first George Bush was Lincoln compared to the second. The number of long-term screwups and willful ignorances by this administration will be haunting this nation well past 2012 or 2016. This nation will have completely lost its way - for good - by electing in any fashion another politician from The House Of The Family Of Bush.

There was some good news at the end of this article, however:

This is the last White House Letter by Elisabeth Bumiller, who is going on book leave.

Thank God.

I had a visit to this blog from NetVocates yesterday. The visit was to this post about An Inconvenient Truth last week. What NetVocates says it does seems a bit... too close to lobbying for my initial comfort:

NetVocates delivers a customized combination of monitoring, analysis and action to maximize the positive effect of the blogosphere for the client. The result for NetVocates clients is the ability to gain virtually instantaneous expertise in the area of blogs.

Maximizing positive effect of the blogosphere? Are they trying to play us?

Anyways, here's a few other blogger posts to consider if you find yourself visited by NetVocates:

Make Chai, Not War: Big Brother & the Fortune 500

Mindcaster: netvocates

Just gotta wonder what is going on here - and who their clients are...

My wife tells me our oldest is getting as bad as our youngest about leaving clothes on the floor, particularly pajamas. They just take them off in the morning and expect to leave them on the floor until nightfall when they'll wear them again. I said no problem, I know just what to tell them.

I go downstairs and they're both sitting on the couch. I tell them we have a situation we need to address. They've been leaving their pajamas on the floor when they get dressed. Before I was married to their mom, I would change clothes and leave them on the floor wherever I changed or undressed. That all changed when we married, and now clothes either go in the dirty clothes hamper or back in the dresser if they can be worn again without washing, such as pajamas. I don't leave my pajamas on the floor.

"Now, if I have to do this, so do you," I added.

Our five year old looked a bit puzzled, and then he worked it out. "So you're saying we can just leave our pajamas on the floor until we get married?"

This cracks me up. A whole article about how Bush admitted to a nation that he, as President, needs to be more sophisticated. Really. Bush was right - and there's very little credit to give to him for realizing it or admitting it - as President he should be considerably more careful and adept in how he chooses his words - because language is a tool. America should make the ability to communicate proficiently an obvious requirement for President.

But Bill Bennett disagrees.

"One of the attractive things about the president is that he talks Texas," Mr. Bennett continued. "But what broke my heart is when he said, 'I need to be more sophisticated.' What is this, Kerry talk? Is he going to use 'elan' the next time he speaks?"

Funny. Obviously, Bennett knows the word 'elan', and feels it is representative of the term "sophisticated". Apparently Mr. Bennett had an education and a life experience where he realized that the word 'elan' might come in handy at some point, and he retained it. Bennett feels it's okay for him to have a vocabulary with such words - but it isn't useful for the President of the United States to have a command of the English language to make the fullest advantage of the tool?

Bill Bennett is saying that the language skills of the President should be less than his own, or less than John Kerry's. It's beyond calling Bennett, who makes money as a writer, ironic for holding such a position.

It's just plain stupid.

Yeah, me neither. That's why articles like this make no sense to me. I know her name recognition is probably higher than many other potential Democratic Party candidates. But that's not a real preference.

Meeting when a new Iraqi unity government offered the promise of a way out of an unpopular war that had damaged their standing at home, Mr Bush and Mr Blair were reflective on some grievous mistakes critics said had intensified anti-American sentiment in the Middle East.

...

"Yesterday's men is the phrase that occurred to me," Jonathan Clarke, a former British diplomat now at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, said.

Tomorrow can't get here soon enough!

Oil.
Oil.
Oil.

For Victor Davis Hanson, it is ALL about the OIL.

But what did 2,400 brave and now deceased Americans really sacrifice for in Iraq, along with thousands more who were wounded? And what were billions in treasure spent on? And what about the hundreds of collective years of service offered by our soldiers? What exactly did intrepid officers in the news like a Gen. Petreus, or Col. McMaster, or Lt. Col Kurilla fight for?

First, there is no longer a mass murderer atop one of the oil-richest states in the world.

Maybe neocons are getting closer to their own inner truth. Hanson still decorates the entire article, from start to finish, with freedom rococo and democracy facade. It may take years - decades - for people like Hanson to get past the layers and layers of internal disinformation paint and propaganda wallpaper they've coated their personal logic with in order to accept the fact that they promoted a war mainly so that the U.S. could gain some control of an asset another country held. Maybe Hanson will never allow himself to actually get there. Maybe he'll always have to crutch himself with the false belief that we went there to provide freedom and democracy to the Iraqis, even though there are dozens of other countries in the world with brutal situations lacking freedom and democracy that Hanson won't march off a cliff for arguing that we attack.

It's hard to say. Hanson admits it was about the oil, and a few paragraphs down, he denies it was about the oil. His inner confusion apparently didn't allow him to realize his points were opposing. One thing for sure: America cannot afford to continue to allow people sharing his befuddlement make policy - if such a grand word can be applied to what they are doing - much longer in this country.

America still comes up with them from time to time, and they become accepted by other countries.

from ekathimerini.com

Greek authorities are expected to adopt by the end of the year the Amber Alert plan used in the United States to help detect missing children after more than 350 youngsters disappeared from their homes in Greece in the last 17 months.

Constantinos Yiannopoulos, president of the children’s rights watchdog the Child’s Smile, said yesterday that initial coordination efforts for the alert system will be undertaken by the group.

The plan, established in the USA in 1996, involves police informing television and radio broadcasters about a missing child. The broadcasters then interrupt their programs to transmit the Amber Alert about the child. Messages may also appear on highway signs and on mobile phones via text messages.

The system is considered to deter abductions, since experts say there have been incidents where kidnappers have released children after hearing the alert on the radio.

“[The problem of] missing children is an international daily social phenomenon that affects all of us. It does not have to happen to us to make us sensitive to the issue,” the Child’s Smile said.

The procedure has been successful in the USA. Authorities claim the number of missing children who are found has risen significantly.

According to Greek police, 125 boys and 253 girls have gone missing since the start of 2005.

“Most cases regard children who leave home on their own or are taken away by one of their parents who ignore court rulings,” Yiannopoulos said.

Volunteers handed out balloons and flowers yesterday at Syntagma Square in central Athens to mark the occasion of International Missing Children’s Day.

More than 2,000 children go missing around the world every day.

Here's Russert's guests for Meet the Press this Sunday.

Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-NE, & House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-WI, David Broder, David Ignatius, Kate O'Beirne, Eugene Robinson.

Just another week of sepia news coverage by Timmy Russert. Wondering what the count of Republicans versus Democrats, as far as current and former elected and appointed officials are, for 2006? With this weekend's show, it looks like this:

26 Republicans
12 Democrats

I realize the Democrats are out of power, but they need to start talking loudly, and in public, about this guest distribution on Meet the Press. Russert is approach Foxland. Congressional Democrats shouldn't just limply accept it.

Haven't done this in a LONG time...

Thanks to the following fine bloggers that have added PSoTD to their blogroll... it is MUCH appreciated!

Aunt Elinor Fights Crime

The Lady Speaks

It's My Country Too

Thanks!

Since it Iraq a while to put together a Constitution, maybe Gibraltar's politicians feel less pressure.

Cardboard Eye.

Treasury Secretary John Snow has signaled to the White House he is ready to resign once President Bush has picked a successor, administration officials and people close to Snow said Thursday.

They said Snow has made clear he eventually intends to return to the private sector. They spoke on condition of anonymity because Snow is not ready to discuss his plans publicly.

Will the Bush Administration drop another load in their pants at the sight of yet ANOTHER leak? Will the Republican bloggers? They usually do...

The big question is, will this hurt Tom Ridge's ability to draw money from Republicans in the future?

Lynn Swann, the Republican candidate for governor, might benefit more financially by appearing on the campaign trail with former Gov. Tom Ridge, but it might cost him much-needed support in the central part of the state.

Swann, who had a long-standing commitment to speak at the West Branch Manufacturers Association annual dinner next Tuesday, canceled last week after receiving an offer to appear with Ridge elsewhere on the same day.

The Williamsport group said it feels slighted and is withholding the $15,000 it raised on Swann's behalf. Checks are being returned to donors.

Michael J. Sharbaugh, the association's executive director, said he is hearing people say, "I was going to vote for him, but not now. If you can't keep your commitment, you won't make a good governor."

...

"It's a real bonehead move," said Michael Young, managing partner of Michael Young Strategic Research. "He alienated people in an important part of the state. This is an early indicator of a campaign that's in trouble."

Between the Swann campaign and the current dismal atmosphere around Rick Santorum's chances, Republicans in Pennsylvania have to be feeling pretty downtrodden about their chances in the fall.

And you have to wonder what poor Jim Matthews (and his brother, Chris Matthews) are thinking, other than they both may have hitched a political career plan for the future on someone who keeps fumbling.

From the United Nations Association of Georgia:

The promotion of democracy, peace and security, and integration into Euro-Atlantic structures were set as the major priorities of the new regional organization which was established by Georgian, Ukrainian, Azeri and Moldovan leaders at a summit in Kiev on May 23.

The U.S.-backed informal grouping of these post-Soviet states, known as GUAM, has now turned into a regional Organization for Democracy and Economic Development (ODED) with headquarters in Kiev.

When moron prudes run government, prudish moronity is the result.

Apparently when the Vice President isn't out shooting people in the face, he's obsessing Queeg-style over unfavorable newspaper reporting.

Libby also told the grand jury that Cheney often scribbled on newspaper articles and kept them on a corner of his desk at the White House.

"He often cut out from a newspaper an article using a little penknife that he has and put it on the edge of his desk," Libby testified, according to a transcript of the grand jury proceeding that Fitzgerald attached to his filing.

Libby testified that Cheney would pull an article out of the pile later and "think about it."

Ahh, but the yellowcake that's... that's where I had them. They laughed at me and made jokes but I proved beyond the shadow of a doubt and with... geometric logic... that the Niger uranium connection DID exist ...

Even though my site traffic is still increasing, I'm a bit concerned over a trend on this blog. One of the things that has seemed to happen, although I really can't tell for sure, is that I've been slowly replacing regular readers with Google visitors. A few years ago I could look at my SiteMeter report and see where visitors were coming from, and they were primarily coming from blogrolls. That is no longer the case, and I suspect that blogrolls are well on their way to extinction, to be replaced with a handier set of link tools similar to what Leftyblogs provides with RSS feeds and headlines.

And that's okay with me if blogrolls disappear over time, but I'm not sure what to make of not having a regular readership. It's nice to be a reference point for search engines on important and less important items, and it's always refreshing to see a post of mine referenced by Daou Report or Shakespeare's Sister or some other blog that generates a burst of interest. But shouldn't I rather want regular, daily, or at least every-other-day, readership? Is smaller and returning better than larger and sporadic?

What would you prefer on your own blog?

Another rather scary step in the progression of avian flu, as reported by Effect Measure:

WHO is now saying what could be inferred from their update yesterday: it is likely that for the first time H5N1 has spread from human to human to human -- three generations of cases, possibly four. This does not mean that a pandemic strain has started but it is another warning signal.

If we take the statement that there has been no change in the virus (let's see the sequences!), then there is another inference we might make. This is just the first time WHO has acknowledged this, not the first time it has happened. Since many cases in Vietnam, China and elsewhere lack solid evidence of close contact with poultry this may have happened many times over (see our post here). The index case here was a vegetable seller in a market where there were live animals, so she wasn't in contact with poultry as an occupation. She might well have contracted the disease from sick poultry at the market but she might also have contracted it from someone else at the market (or elsewhere).

As a result of this cogent evidence in Indonesia, WHO may convene a standing committee of experts to decide if the pandemic alert level should move from the current Phase 3 to a new Phase 4.

Yep, the Al Gore movie.

It plays in Harrisburg June 30th at the Midtown Cinema.

Kind of strange how little attention with the U.S. press the foreign markets have received, considering their rather dramatic activity in the past week...

From Helsinki:

Share prices fell sharply on the Helsinki Stock Exchange on Monday - by around four percent. In the past two weeks, more than ten percent of the value of stocks traded in Helsinki has evaporated. The trend is similar to that of other countries, but the decline in Finland has been sharper than on most bourses.

Monday was considerably worse on the Mumbai Stock Exchange in India, where shares plummeted by more than ten percent, repeating a similar dismal performance on Friday.

You can all thank Kathy Flake for this question, since she decided to jab me in comments earlier...

How many foreign newspaper web sites - that is, web sites of newspapers headquartered out of the country you reside - do you check out daily?

From the Center for Rural Pennsylvania:

A Center for Rural Pennsylvania study released in 2000 compared the cost of living across the common-wealth’s 67 counties and found that costs in urban counties were typically about 6 percent higher than in rural counties. Rural counties had lower costs for each component of the index, including groceries, housing, utilities, transportation, health care, and miscellaneous goods and services.

...

Data also indicate that, over the next 10 years, Baby Boomers will be making their way back to rural Pennsylvania. Older Boomers, who are now hitting their retirement years, seem to be attracted to the quality of life in rural Pennsylvania. This is evidenced, in part, by the roughly 5 percent increase in Baby Boomers from 1990 to 2000.

This Internet revolution thing is pretty cool, but it's quite interesting how much of a cold shoulder it has received from the home contracting/remodeling industry. Ever try looking for prices for a type of siding, or window, or door, or tile? Good luck in getting much information on that online.

Maybe setting an example to the citizenry isn't such a bad idea... too bad the message of reducing gasoline usage by the government didn't land with this editorial writer.

Of course, Bush's message to the public, based on his travels, is to spend the people's money on gasoline frivolously as possible.

P.S. - This isn't really a news site, and neither were these conservative bloggers. Opinion by bloggers isn't news - it's expected. So get over it.

Now, if we could just get Google to stop including the Opinion Urinal...

Did you love it? We did, especially on vanilla ice milk. Do you miss it? Here's a poll - share your feelings.

If John McCain is so intent on defining this lackluster presentation as "The speech the Angry Left tried to suppress", why doesn't he bother to explain why it deserves that definition? What a cheesy trick, trying to con conservatives to read his speech by tossing a raw meat heading and serving tofu.

Oh, and while I'm at it on the Opinion Urinal, this piece of crap writing is so bad, but has no name on it. I'm betting it is John Fund's.

I AM SO SICK OF THE MANUFACTURED CONTROVERSY OF THE DAY.

A Keller school district parent said political correctness has run amok at her daughter's elementary school, where the principal chose to omit the words "In God We Trust" from an oversize coin depicted on the yearbook cover.

Janet Travis, principal of Liberty Elementary School in Colleyville, wanted to avoid offending students of different religions, a district spokesman said. Students were given stickers with the words that could be affixed to the book if they so chose.

Debi Ackerman of North Richland Hills said she is offended by the omission. It's yet another example of a politically correct culture that is removing Christian references from all public places, she said.

No, it's not that. It's another example of the religiously bombastic culture flaying anyone who crosses even their smallest sensitivities. Most members of faith will look at this and say, hey, it's a school elementary yearbook - an ELEMENTARY SCHOOL YEARBOOK, and it's not worth any controversy. But not Debi Ackerman.

I'm so sick of this press opportunism abusing the name of religion. Quit giving those who have faith a black eye with these kinds of mind-numbingly inane manufactured press pushes. It is an elementary school yearbook and it is an image of a coin. (And to be honest, I think it's considerably more disturbing that an elementary school chose to put a coin - for whatever reason - on the cover of their yearbook.) It was made FOR THE KIDS. Do you really have to spoil that, Debi Ackerman? Are you really that sensitive? Is this really that important?

And, Star-Telegram - don't you realize that the more press you provide for the most inane controversies, the more inane controversies will be stirred up? Are you in pursuit of inanity? The expansion of coverage of inanity? STOP IT!

I think it's pretty clear that this kind of approach can and will be very popular for some nation/state/territory at some point. But I don't expect St. Croix to be the first...

Elayne's back from her successful tour of Britain. I forgot to restock the refrigerator...

How many of these beers have you had?

And congratulations to Tröegs! Harrisburg's own has the 41st beer on the list!

... benefitting Keystone Residences in Steelton, we were having wings and hot sausage and wings and chili and wings and salsa!!

Did I mention wings??

at the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Camp Hill...

And once again it was delicious. I love the gyros, plain and simple. Both our kids ate skewered Chicken Souvlaki, and my wife went for the Spanakopita. She found it more of an appetizer, though, and went for a gyro afterwards, while I chowed down on Saganaki (fried cheese). Then we shared Kourambiedes, Galaktobouriko and Diples for dessert. We left stuffed and looking forward to next year.

If you're finding your Inner Wonk left wanting by the processed talking point blather of the Sunday morning gabfests, make a visit to BloggingHeads.tv. BloggingHeads juxtaposes two bloggers head-to-head via webcam feed bantering on the issues of the day.

Although these self-described "diavlogs" offer next-to-no production qualities, they are surprisingly informative and entertaining . Sound and light levels can be all over the place and cell phones, sirens, dogs and kids sometimes intrude but the signal-to-noise ratio mostly stays extremely high. The format also nurtures a collegial civility and genuine interchange of ideas which is usually lacking in the blogosphere back-and-forth. They actually listen to each other! Robert Wright and Mickey Kaus are the uber-heads but other participants have included Matthew Yglesias, Jonah Goldberg, Josh Marshall, Amy Sullivan and other "big name" bloggers.

Three episodes are being posted weekly. They run approximately 45 minutes and can be either streamed from the bloggingheads.tv site or downloaded as .wmv or .mp3 files.

Any format in which I can tolerate Mickey Kaus deserves some props. Definitely recommended!

The National Review's Michael Ledeen is in a tizzy!

I am sorry to have to post this, a video of the leader of Tehran's bus drivers' organization (it is forbidden to call it a union) after a torture session in an Iranian prison.

But it seems otherwise impossible to convince Western leaders that we are confronting a monstrous evil, that seeks to destroy or dominate us by all possible means. The sort of horror you see on this video is repeated every day, sometimes leading to execution, sometimes to further sadism.

Somebody should clue the mullahs in that "civilized" nations send their priority riff raff to secret prisons in other countries for "interrogation". And they definitely don't let the victims show up later on videotape. Out of sight, out of mind. Outsource your monstrous evils!

If a beer company could be a superhero, now would be a good time for it at Latrobe, because Rolling Rock is leaving.

This could be the year that Vietnam takes the credit.

I'm not sure why, but this story discomforts me.

After selling his Malibu mansion last year for a cool $10 million, Nicolas Cage has now plunked down $3 million for a relatively pristine island in The Bahamas, the Wall Street Journal reports.

It's the second rock for the 42-year-old Oscar winner, who bought his first Bahamian island in 2000 and has a house on Paradise Island near Nassau.

The 40-acre retreat is situated some 85 miles south of that residence in the Exuma archipelago chain in the southern Bahamas, reportedly near an island owned by married country crooners Tim McGraw and Faith Hill.

According to the paper, Cage plans to turn the undeveloped private atoll into a romantic getaway for himself and his wife, Alice, and their infant son, Kal-El.

I guess my biggest question is where the $3 million goes. Into the local economy? Or out of the area?

People regularly die at the interchange of routes 15 and 581 outside of Harrisburg. Most often, a negligent truck driver rams his rig into the back of some poor commuter stopped in traffic due to a ridiculous merge point. It happened again this Friday.

A 21-year-old Cumberland County woman was identified as the motorist who was killed in the fiery eight-vehicle accident that closed Route 581 in Camp Hill on Friday evening for more than 11 hours, police announced yesterday.

...

The accident happened shortly before 5 p.m. during heavy-rush hour traffic in the westbound lanes of Route 581, about a mile east of the U.S. 11/15 interchange in Camp Hill.

State police at Harrisburg said seven vehicles were stooped for traffic. A truck-tractor loaded with lumber driven by Dane B. Clark of Punxsutawney, who failed to stop in time and crashed into the seven vehicles, leaving the road littered with mangled vehicles.

The truck driver certainly deserves a great share of the blame but I'd also like to say "Screw You" to whoever was responsible for the incompetent interchange layout.

The American government offers no safe haven or justice from the terror of being falsely detained of being a terrorist - and being tortured as a result. Our government insists on being the bad guys, even after the fact, in these kinds of cases.

Sorry, Dallas Mavericks. No Jerry Stackhouse team has ever won the NBA title. But I bet you already suspected that...

Apparently there are other nations with as much perceived disrespect for other peoples as America.

From The Nation:

Lao people are often left feeling insulted and humiliated thanks to jokes by Thai celebrities and the Thai media, an academic said yesterday.

Adisorn Semyaem from Chulalongkorn University's Asia Study Institute has just completed a survey of 216 people in Laos and 40 per cent said they felt Thai television and music personalities actually enjoyed insulting Lao people.

The media were also in the firing line, with 27 per cent of respondents saying the industry harboured a negative attitude towards them, said Adisorn.

The two countries' histories and the fact Thailand is more economically advanced mean Thai people feel superior to Lao people, he said.

As far as Lao people are concerned, Thailand is the worst offender when it comes to countries that tend to humiliate them, followed by the United States.

Very few Lao felt Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan or China had ever insulted them, he added.

On the other hand, I don't remember hearing an American entertainer or seen on American television any knocks about Lao people since the Vietnamese War. So I wonder... what is the perceived source of this humiliation in the case of the United States? Media? Government? Does our State Department ever look into such things, since it public perception can drive government policy?

Pam has a piece about the tunnel-Christians trying to bully the nation about The Da Vinci Code. This comment struck me from the newspaper article she quoted:

"I think that people who hate God and who hate the entire idea of Christianity are trying to develop ways to be more scathing in what they have to say," the pro-lifer asserts, "because Christianity is growing stronger. And the very fact that that is happening is debilitating to those people who hate God. It's almost like the anti-Christ is among us and has taken about 500 different forms, all of which have the same message: you have to hate God to be accepted in our society."

Here's what I hate: I hate the idea that a "Christian" thinks they have the right and the authority and the knowledge to claim that another person "hates God" because they may hold a different belief than they do. Not hate - just different - and most likely still reverence and faith. These "Christians" don't have the right, and they don't have the authority, and they most certainly don't have the knowledge, to know this. And yet they revel and homogenize in their ignorance.

Secondly, it's not that you have to hate God to be accepted in our society, but the converse is true: if you act like everyone who disagrees with you is anti-God and that you have the only true vision of God, then you will not be accepted by society.

Because unless you're the second coming, you shouldn't be.

I really don't think strap-ons are going to be the answer.

Just another one of those American efforts likely to get everyone to hate our asses a bit more in the future...

Citing Tehran's "unpredictability" as the reason for its concern over the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project, the United States has said it was making efforts to help New Delhi with its energy needs.

"This is a project that's been talked about quite a bit in the region. We have made our concerns known about it. We made them aware of US legislation that might affect any investments in Iran, and made our concern about Iran as the source of energy need, given the unpredictability some times of Iranian behaviour," Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Richard Boucher said.

Anyone think the primary point here is to help India and Pakistan? Or to hurt Iran...

Sad? Funny? Potatoe? You make the call.

Do you remember this?

I see that the Washington Post made Pennsylvania's state primary on Tuesday a big national story today. I do think they understate Pennsylvania's reasons for dumping many incumbents on Tuesday:

Some of the backlash against incumbents grows out of specific grievances such as the Pennsylvania pay raise or missteps by individual lawmakers.

The payraise was the ignition, but I think it was the attitude of the state legislators that cost many in the primary. For several, it was downright haughty to those who were protesting the payraise. It was a lack of respect. They tried to foist a "ruling class expertise" diet on the public, and many of them ended up with losing primary campaign vomit as a result.

I don't think the Post gets it. It really isn't about the issue primarily. It's the attitude that came out. Pennsylvanians rejected it as not appropriate for leadership or representation. Do I think it's over? No. Unless Pennsylvania's General Assembly goes into complete hiding over the next six months, I think that attitude will make itself known again. The public is hypersensitive to it now. The press knows it, and will feed the public's sensitivity. This ain't over.

Earlier this week, at Pen-Elayne, I asked this question:

But Americans seem to be more and more inclined to use their naked bodies as a means of political protest - the months before and after the beginning of the Iraq War saw many, many photo op events with citizens posing naked together to spell out aerial messages such as "No War".

But does it work beyond shock value? And does shock value actual undermine the message?

Ann Bartow of Feminist Law Professors posted in comments a link about this very topic that I found very interesting. Please give it a read, both for the warning about providing nude images of oneself and the question: if nude protests garner more attention than clothed protests, will the nudity - and not the number of protesters - be what history remembers for any given protest movement?

Doesn't this sound like an effective grassroots idea to help the general public?

The Lobby School was founded to enable its participants to improve their chances of changing their states' legal environments.

Oh, wait a minute...

A state legislature can either enrich you or impoverish you; it can prevent or permit your actions and those of others. Which are you going to let happen? We can help you get an appropriation or legislation to advance your group’s interests or disadvantage a key competitor. You do not have to accept the status quo.

Who attends their seminars?

Bank of America
All State Insurance Company
California State Automobile Assoc
Costco Wholesalers
GlaxoSmithKline

That went south fast. But why couldn't this be done at the grassroots level, for ordinary citizens, at ordinary citizen cost? This thing costs $525 - a corporate price structure, obviously. Why couldn't somebody put something together for $50, and run it out of the "adult education" programs that communities around the country provide?

Americans, be proud. Other countries are taking the American model of governance and saying that if it's good enough for the United States, it's good enough for them. For example, Bangladesh:

The proposed Anti-Terrorism Act will have the provision to put a suspected militant under preventive detention in the style of Special Powers Act.

The deputy commissioners of police will order such detention for a period of one month. For detention of a longer period, the accused will have to be produced before and get approval of an advisory board as per constitutional provision.

"This law will not be used against anyone with political motivation," Law Minister Moudud Ahmed told reporters after a meeting of an inter-ministerial body formed to examine the draft Ant-Terrorism Act at his ministry. "We are looking into it carefully to ensure stopping of its political use," he said.

The proposed law designed to cover all aspects of terrorism and militancy provides up to capital punishment if the charge is proved, he said, adding that it will be "very strict" about bails. "The court has to be absolutely satisfied before granting one bail," Moudud said.

The draft has been prepared basing on all existing laws, including the Explosive Substances Act, Arms Act and Special Powers Act. Offences covered by the existing laws will, however, not be included in the new law, Moudud said.

The land's laws cannot take action against the persons, groups and political parties for militant activities and terror financing, he said.

"It has become very urgent to introduce a new law as terrorism and militancy have acquired a new dimension. New terms are coming in use and the militants are using substances that the existing laws are inadequate to cover," the law minister told reporters.

Countries like the UK and USA have laws for detention of militants and terrorists without trial, he told the BBC Bangla Service last night.

Don't it make you proud!

I can't wait for his statements.

"There comes a time in every man's life, and I've had plenty of them."

"Managing is getting paid for home runs someone else hits."

"They examined all my organs. Some of them are quite remarkable and others are not so good. A lot of museums are bidding for them."

"You have to go broke three times to learn how to make a living."

"All blame is a waste of time. No matter how much fault you find with another, and regardless of how much you blame him, it will not change you. The only thing blame does is to keep the focus off you when you are looking for external reasons to explain your unhappiness or frustration. You may succeed in making another feel guilty about something by blaming him, but you won't succeed in changing whatever it is about you that is making you unhappy."

Yeah, you're right, I just used this story as a cheap excuse to throw some Casey Stengel quotes around.

Robert Jubelirer
David Brightbill
Teresa Forcier
Frank Pistella
Kenneth Ruffing
Tom Stevenson
Stephen Maitland
Roy Baldwin
Gib Armstrong
Peter Zug
Fred Belardi
Dennis Leh
Sue Cornell
Paul Semmel

They are all incumbents that lost their statehouse primary races yesterday. There will likely be at least a few more as the election results become final.

WHO weighed in last week...

THE World Health Organisation is concerned over the migration and recruitment of health workers from Africa, an official has said.

In a speech read on her behalf on Friday to mark the International Nurses Day, WHO country representative for Namibia, Dr Custodia Mandhlate said the recruitment of health personnel from African countries by developed countries undermined investment in the health delivery system.

"We need to ensure that this free movement of professional health workers does not undercut national plans to improve human resource supply and distribution. This is a critical element in our endeavour to strengthen our health systems and provide quality service," she said.

Dr Mandhlate added that WHO was concerned that inadequate staffing in health institutions was reaching crisis levels in all regions, leading to an increase in the length of hospital stays, patient complications and mortality and preventable adverse situations.

Noted Dr Mandhlate: "Health workers, who also include nurses, provide health care to those who need it. But around the world, the health workforce is in a crisis - a crisis to which no country is entirely immune. Health care environments vary worldwide, but the need for adequate staff is shared. This goes beyond the minimum required for potential substandard care."

She urged health care workers and associations to determine safe staffing levels in the context of patient requirements, collect relevant clinical and workforce data, disseminate and demonstrate the importance of safe staffing, form alliances to support safe staffing policies, undertake impact assessment studies and prepare a communication plan that effectively influences decisionmaking.

Solutions to the crisis must be worked out at local, national and international levels and involve governments, the United Nations, health professionals, nongovernmental organisations and community leaders, she said.

Most African countries have been hit by an exodus of health professionals mostly to Europe. A number of Zimbabwean nurses and doctors have left the country for Britain, Australia and some have recently tracked to Swaziland. Namibia also faces the same problem and entered into agreements with governments of Cuba to provide doctors and Kenya to provide nurses. Zimbabwe Health Minister Dr David Parirenyatwa announced at the weekend that the Southern Africa Development Community was taking steps to minimise poaching of doctors and nurses by requiring the country of origin of a health professional to agree to his or her employment in another SADC state. Under a protocol, no SADC member state shall disadvantage another by luring or "stealing" health professionals using economic superiority.

God, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's web site is a mess for citizens to use...

I'm not the only one with this opinion... check out Pollywogs' opinion.

First time with the electronic touchpad voting machines. I can see where a large segment of the Central Pennsylvania population is going to struggle with it. It isn't as intuitive as you would expect - for the amount that it costs, I would think it would be as simple as using a MAC machine, but not really. Plus, someone at the precinct has to join you in the booth to set it up for the proper party ballot, and walk you through the process of voting. I think it will be interesting to read the letters to the editor in the following week to see what complaints burble up... beyond the obvious security ones.

Well, at least one stops by this place on the Carlisle Pike almost daily for coffee...

Senator Weasel strikes again.

Seriously, can Specter be believed on anything, ever, again?

Okay, it's not really new, but maybe something you haven't thought of, particularly in the light of Avian flu... The western nations are taking their health professionals away. From Kenya's Daily Nation:

In a span of four years, 3,390 of Kenya's 30,000 registered nurses migrated to Europe and the United States. During this period between 2000 and 2004, about 1,200 nurses were leaving Kenya for greener pastures every year, the National Nurses Association of Kenya (NMAK) says.

This was not necessarily a bad thing, Mr Simba K’odambo, the NMAK chairman, said as they marked the Nurses Week in Nairobi last Friday.

Nurses have long been overworked and underpaid and found themselves ripe for easy pickings with the attractive pay offered by clinics in countries that have so willingly absorbed them.

Whatever John Hinderaker means by this, he ought to be called on it to prove it, because it smells like ass. Like where it was pulled from...

My cab driver was completely disoriented by this. I could tell he didn't believe it. Like nearly all African cab drivers, he listens to public radio all day long. Twenty minutes with me wasn't enough to overcome years of liberal indoctrination.

I just want to see that study on African cab driver radio listening habits.

I suspect that not many are still listening to Bush at this point in his disastrous tenure. Accordingly I'll defer to his dead-end wingnut constituents at National Review for reaction to his prime time speechifying tonight...

Only when the Bush administration opposes renewal of the federal bilingual ballot mandate, will I believe it means what it says about assimilation. Until then, their statements about the importance of immigrants learning English are boilerplate boob bait for Bubbas.

Or as Mark Krikorian more succinctly puts it: "More Mush from the Wimp"

I don't think they liked it.

Go vote.

Here's some Pennsylvania reading for your evening...

Karl's not worried. Why? Because he's needed, because this is the most inefficient White Ho