Check out the Don King video clip that goes along with Item from USA today.

George Bush as Sugar Ray Robinson, you have to love Don King.

Anyone know what is up with Jen's site?

All I am getting is a blank page. I think it's some radical new site design.

So does France follow the Philippines and appease the terrorists or do they finally show some backbone?

PARIS - The French government prepared for crisis talks Tuesday to save the lives of two journalists held hostage in Iraq (news - web sites), while aides to rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for the release of the reporters as a deadline set by their kidnappers neared.

Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot were shown on a video released by Al-Jazeera television late Monday pleading, apparently under duress, for President Jacques Chirac to save their lives by giving in to militants' demands to rescind a ban on head scarves in French schools.

The full story is Here.

It is interesting to see that Al-Sadr is trying to get involved. I think that he is trying to set himself as some sort of go between in these hostage situations. Of course the fact that his followers are probably the ones holding the hostages helps.

UPDATE: Wretchard has a great post on this over at Belmont Club

Much lighter than normal traffic on the way into work this morning, Office is a ghost town, NYC full of Republicans, if it wasn’t for all the protestors it would be a perfect week.

Last night on my way home I was listening to the radio and they were covering the protests that had occurred earlier in the day. At least one interviewee was still wound up about the 2000 election and I mean really WOUND up. Maybe it’s me but I would like to think that if it had gone the other way I would not be that pissed about something that happened almost 4 years ago. Jesus people you are in the shadow of ground zero here and all you can bitch about is the 2000 election?

From an editorial in today’s NY Post

As former Mayor Ed Koch has said, hosting the GOP convention "reinforces for the world that among the many things New Yorkers do well is to pull together."
Koch, a Democrat, understands that this event is about showing off New York, not about partisan politics

The opinion piece is talking about the decision by the New York Choral Society to pull out of performing at the RNC next week. Apparently too many of the members felt a performance would constitute an endorsement of the Republican Party. It is this type of BS that has made me embarrassed to say that I am from NY these days. I think that much of the city has been struck by some weird amnesia. It’s as if 9/11 never happened here. There are times when I believe it will take another attack to get these people to wake up to the fact that there is a war going on, and it’s not against George Bush and the Republicans. After this week I wonder what type of view the rest of the country will have of NY.

Does anyone think that Scott Peterson has a snowball's chance in hell of getting off now? I love the headline on the NY Post this morning, "Dead in the Water". It couldn't happen to a nicer guy. It should be interesting to hear the defense's spin.

In the time leading up to the 2000 election it was discovered that Al Gore had a reputation for stretching the truth, and lets not forget Bill “I didn’t inhale or have sex with that woman” Clinton. Judging from the continued revelations regarding John Kerry’s past it would seem that trait is now a requirement for the democratic presidential candidates.

Good luck to Rodney Dangerfield who goes in for major heart surgery today.

Those of us who live and work on the NYC area have been bracing for the coming GOP convention for the past several weeks. To hear some people talk you would think that the apocalypse is upon us. Of course the city is predicting a business bonanza that will run over 250 million dollars. A couple of questions pop into my mind, first how did Boston make out? I seem to remember hearing a fair amount of stories from local businesses in the area of the Fleet center that business sucked that week. Now maybe the hotels saw an increase in business but it seems that in the summertime they would be doing quite well even without the convention. The Bloomberg administration is also touting all the jobs that were created for the convention but it seems to me that they would be temporary jobs at best. Far too often we hear all of these pronouncements from the City but I wonder if these gains ever fully materialize. Another question is what is the true cost of providing security for the convention? I know that there were not a lot of protests in Boston but NY has already spent quite a bit of money fighting several different groups in court to block them from gathering in Central Park. Supposedly the Feds are kicking in some bucks to help cover the security costs.
Personally I am somewhat glad that the convention is coming to town as I get to work from one of our recovery sites that is 3 miles from my apartment in NJ for several days. I also think that it good that all the moonbats will be out in full force. It will be good for everyone to see them making fools of themselves.

With all the yelling going on over the Swift boat veterans ads, and all the other outside ads, I have to wonder what in the hell was going through Bush's mind when he signed the campaign finance act into law. Did he really believe that it would stop this type of advertising or did he figure that it would be struck down by the Supreme Court? Perhaps he figured that a soft money ban would benefit the Republicans has they have traditionally been able to raise more “hard money” than the Dems. While people have long debated the second amendment I always thought that the first amendment was crystal clear. When the court failed to stop the campaign finance act I almost fell on the floor. What part of “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech…” Don’t they understand?

I am sitting here watching 1986 on VH1, anyone remember the Al Capone's vault debacle? To bad they didn't seal Geraldo Rivera in there after finding it was empty. How about jolt cola? Any one have any bad memories from that year?

From the AP wire

WASHINGTON - John Kerry (news - web sites)'s Vietnam War service records run to multiple medal commendations and a notation of "conspicuous gallantry" in combat. President Bush (news - web sites)'s file tracks the stateside career of a National Guard test pilot. Yet the combat veteran is the one under attack as a wartime pretender in the race for the White House.

The whole "report" could be a press release from the Democratic party.

I was reading a sotry in the NY Post today on Michael Jackson's latest problems. The story covers some details of the alleged payouts that Jackson was prepared to make to the family of the boy who accused him of molestation. What really gets me is the fact that the deal fell through because the family held out for more loot. If I found out that my kid had been molested I would not be extorting money from the pervert who did it, I would be thinking up ways to kill the SOB. Granted I would not be letting my 12 year old spend that kind of time with any 40+ year old man, much less one with a history as bad a dear Michael. What the hell are these people thinking? In my book they are just as bad as he is, if not worse.

On the drive into work this morning I was listening to the weather report and they mentioned that today might be the hottest day of the summer with the temperature maybe breaking 90 in the city. No I am not complaining about this summer, it has been rather nice, but I don’t remember a summer as cool as this one in a long time. It always seems like we have a lot of days that break the 90 degree mark by this time of the year here in NYC. A few years back I remember reading something that said that harsh winters are usually preceded by cooler than usual summers so I am not really looking forward to this winter.

On the way into work this morning I heard about Papernapkin.net . It's a response service for women who want to reject the men who pester them in bars or on the street. From their home page

So here's the scenario: You're out at a bar, riding transit, or even just walking down the street, and some bozo who desperately wants into your pants starts up a conversation with you. Rather than make a scene or make them upset, you're polite and at least nod at the proper times. Then, of course, they ask you for your number. Except this is 2004, so maybe they ask for your email address instead. That's where Paper Napkin comes in. Give them anyname@papernapkin.net (or paamail.com, to be less suspicious), tell them it's your address, and when they write you, they'll automatically get a response telling them how badly they've been rejected.

I took a look at the sample rejection letter and it's quite clever. They even provide a feed back service to improve the letters. I wonder how popular they will be now that the word is out. So far they have 2 domains available. Check it out.

A Swedish scientist who rested his laptop computer on his lap for just an hour needed medical treatment for extensive blistering.
A concerned doctor wrote to The Lancet medical journal after encountering the distressed patient.

He is warning the public of the potential dangers of using a laptop "in the literal sense".

The 50-year-old father-of-two used the laptop machine, of unknown origin, to write a report while sitting in an armchair.

Dr Claes-Goran Ostenson, from Sweden's Karolinska Institute, told the journal: "He had placed his laptop computer on his lap while writing for about one hour.

"The next day he noticed irritation."

The irration of his penis and scrotum led to blisters, one with a diameter of 2cm.

Dr Ostenson said: "The patient recalled that, while sitting two days earlier with his computer on his lap, he occasionally had felt heat and a burning feeling on his lap and thigh."

Unfortunately for the victim, the blisters broke and developed into infected suppurating wounds.

Continue reading "Burnt Genitals"

The lawyer for the Captain of the Staten Island ferry that was involved in a fatal collision last year made the following statement yesterday:

"Under the stress of the moment, he made the mistake of attempting to deflect attention from Richard Smith's role in the accident," Morvillo said. "As captain of the vessel, Mr. Gansas believed it was important to assume responsibility."

And just how does "Captain" Michael Gansas accept said responsibility? By agreeing to a plea bargain in which he agrees to testify against the city's director of ferry operations, Patrick Ryan. As far as I know Ryan was no onboard that fateful day but it must be his fault because, in the words of Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf “Gansas was not aware of the rule because Ryan failed to disseminate or enforce it.” If Gansas was truly unaware of the rule why did he feel the need to lie about his whereabouts during the collision? Also last time I checked being ignorant to of a rule was no excuse in court. The article I read didn’t mention for how many years Gansas had been a Captain but it seems hard to believe that he could have been ignorant of this rule. I don’t know why the US Attorney would offer such a lenient deal to the person who is supposed to have the ultimate responsibility on a ship.

I have a love-hate relationship with Microsoft. On the one hand I have a well paying job in the field of tech support field that will be a job for life as long as Microsoft keeps putting out crappy software. After growing up in the resturant business I can honestly say that working in an Airconditioned office beats the crap out of sweating over a hot stove all day. On the otherhand you get stuff like this Microsoft To Delay Automatic XP SP2 Updates.

And more than likely there will be: XP service pack 2 makes some fairly significant changes to the default Windows firewall configuration that affects many critical applications. Thus far, at least 50 -- and as many as 200 -- applications have been identified as causing conflicts.

What this article neglects to mention is that a large number of those affected applications are Microsoft's own products. You would think that after all this time Microsoft could at least get their own software products to play nice with each other.

Drunk Horse-And-Buggy Driver Causes Crash. RIGA, Latvia - Police in eastern Latvia were trying to determine Wednesday what charges to bring against a drunken horse-and-buggy driver who caused a drunken motorist to crash into a ditch, flipping his car.

The accident happened just before midnight Monday near Kraslava, 140 miles east of the Latvian capital, Riga. The driver of the horse-and-buggy made an illegal turn onto a main road when he should have yielded to an oncoming car, said Kraslava police spokeswoman Ingrida Nevedomska

The horse was sober.

Does Laurence know about this?
Restaurant for Cats Opens in New York

I see that John Kerry is complaining about Bush's plan to redeploy troops from bases in Europe and Asia.

Kerry said the redeployment would undermine relations with U.S. allies needed to help fight in Iraq and in the war on terror. It also would endanger national security as the United States is working to deter North Korea nuclear program, he said.

As far as I have heard we will be pulling the bulk of troops out of Germany. A country, to put it mildly, that has been a less than enthusiastic supporter of our efforts in Iraq. This is also from the guy who voted against the funding for our efforts in Iraq. I am interested in knowing how having all of those troops in Germany helps to protect the US. As for the troops that would be pulled from South Korea it seems to me that if North Korea does in fact have nukes it is prudent to reduce the number troops that would be first in line to be incinerated should the North Koreans decide to nuke the South Koreans. Given the South’s tendency to appease their Northern neighbors, and the hostility that is sometimes directed at the American military based there, it would make sense for them to shoulder more of the burden of their own defense. This also goes for the Germans.

I have heard the calls to create a cabnet level "Intelligence Czar" and maybe it's me, but I don't see how adding another layer of bureaucracy to the government is supposed to help streamline things. Seems to me they should be thinking about reducing the amount of overhead involved.

Update: St. Striker's site about what we can do to aid in the war on terrorism. Today I found out about divestterror.org. It's a nationwide campaignaimed at some 400 public companies worldwide that are providing revenues, technology and moral cover to governments that sponsor terrorism.

Mission Statement

Throughout our history, Americans have risen to the challenge of defending our beloved country and our liberty. Following the 9/11 attacks, however, most Americans felt powerless. Powerless to respond to the tragic attacks in New York and Washington, DC. Powerless to express meaningfully their outrage. And powerless to help defeat terrorism.

What we did not realize -- until now -- was that each and every one of us actually can play a pivotal role in winning the War on Terror. How? By demanding that our public and private pensions plans, college endowments, individual retirement account managers, 401(k) plans, and other investment vehicles exploit the leverage represented by investments in publicly traded companies that operate in terrorist-sponsoring states. In a unified front, we should all be saying "This is my money and it will not go to support terror."

DivestTerror.org is a nationwide campaignaimed at some 400 public companies worldwide that are providing revenues, technology and moral cover to governments that sponsor terrorism. The primary objective of this campaign is to starve terrorists of essential funding and technical support. To illustrate how such a campaign can achieve this objective, please review our synopsis of the South Africa Model of the 1980's that succeeded in ending apartheid

They are providing a service for those of us who would like to do more to help defeat our enemies.

In the world of blogs there is a lot of talk of the “Liberal Media” and its influences on reporting the news. Less mentioned are the leftist influences on the college campuses of America. Now it would seem that even the local libraries are being targeted as this article from Front Page Magazine points out. It seems that they learned from their old Soviet masters about trying to control the flow of information. More and more I am coming to appreciate how much the internet has revolutionized the free flow of information and how important it is to protect.

From the good people who bring us the Demotivators® collection.

1975 - Jim Hightrower warns that America is facing the threat of "McDonalization"

He must have had a stroke when the supersize craze hit.

This is what happens when the kittens stay up all night partying.

Continue reading "One of those days"

Thanks to Laurence for the Link . I have 2 words for him, and they are not happy birthday.

I am finally back in the land of the living after 2 weeks of dialup. I admit it, I am spoiled, how do people survive with dialup these days?

I am currently on vacation and stuck in the land of dial up. regular posting will resume after the 14th.