Delicious (educational?!) Spam

Best spam subject heading of the day:

"Man wrestles leopard hunting pet cnat in bedroom."

Yes, it was spelled "cnat" but I assumed it was supposed to be "cat."

For kicks I googled this (with cat spelled correctly), because the phrase was just to alluring to pass by, and it turns out to be an actual story, dated May 29th, from Reuters.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli man wrestled a leopard to the ground after it
entered his bedroom in a desert college and tried to make a meal of his pet cat.

I actually learned something from spam. Amazing. Unfortunately I also learned there are only 10 wild leopards left in Israel. Poor animal was so hungry it succumbed to breaking and entering. The pet cat survived, by the way.

You Never Call Me ....

L.A. Times headline: Americans not concerned with diversity on Supreme Court, poll shows

I could write all day about this poll, but what I really want to know is, who does Gallop call for these polls?

I have never been called to participate in a poll. I have lots of opinions to share!!!

Setting aside for the moment that I don't really like polls and am suspicious of all stats that come from them, I want to know: Have you ever been asked to participate in a Gallop poll?

In Memoriam: Millard Fuller

I just found out that Millard Fuller, founder of Habitat for Humanity, passed away on Tuesday, February 3rd.

I am more affected by this than I can understand. I met him once, briefly, while volunteer in Americus, Georgia (the birthplace and headquarters of HFH). What do I remember best: he had really large hands. I shook his hand and it just engulfed mine. I have two autographed copies of one of his books because he misspelled my name in the first one, so he sent me another one!

He was such a lovely, inspiring, generous man. Millions of families around the world have simple, decent homes thanks to him. He built such a strong organization that Habitat for Humanity will continue to grow and reach more people around the world for many years. That's the kind of legacy most people can't even imagine for themselves.

For the full story, see Habitat's webpage.

I Love You, but No

Seriously?

I'm really excited about our 44th president, but our free market is running rampant all over it.

Did you know you could get a limited edition Barack Obama Inaugural Tie?

The tie sports "O" and some versions also include the number "44" and comes in five colors (three of which are shades of blue).

If I had to choose one, I think I like the periwinkle the best. The raspberry is a bit bright for my taste - although some men could pull it off admirably, I'm sure.

On the upside, it would be great to see Obama and Oprah square off in a cage match for the use of "O." Prince - as someone familiar with using a symbol to, er, symbolize himself - could provide commentary.

Tiger Beat Centerfold

Did you hear?!? The official portrait of President Obama has been released today!!!

OMG!!!

It's utterly ridiculous, but every time I see Obama looking presidential, I get all giddy.

I know there will be disappointments. It won't be all rainbows and unicorns with Obama in the White House.

But still ....

Isn't he a dreamy President?

Declaration of Human Rights

Happy 60th Anniversary, Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Although I'd like to focus on the good things, I think it's more important to focus on some of the current violations of human rights:

Zimbabwe

"Democratic" Republic of Congo

China

Tibet

Sri Lanka

The problem is that there are so many violations - and they are mostly ignored unless there is some political importance to the major world powers - or a celebrity shines the spotlight on them. But the light fades, politics change gears, and we forget that people are still imprisoned, still hungry, still dying of illness and diseases that "modern" nations don't even worry about.

Awesome

Jon and I spent part of Tuesday night at historic Doyle's in Jamaica Plain. It was great to be part of the crowd, cheering as the results came through in Obama's favor.

It's been so long since I've been really excited about the outcome of an election!

On the BBC website, a woman from Boston posted a comment about how she just wanted to hug all her neighbors because she was so happy. I kind of felt the same way. Riding in on the T this morning, I wanted to high five everyone or break into song or something.

One of my co-workers - who doesn't even work on Wednesdays - came into the office just to say "Hallelujah!" That was great.

Back to the BBC, they have a great world map where they've plotted all the comments that have come in from around the world. It's really fascinating. Highly recommend: Have Your Say Map.

From Mel to Mayhem

I never saw even a hint of a famous person (except maybe the fancy portable toilets they use) while they were filming on my street (one evening I watched them furtively from my porch but all I saw were bright lights and tech guys wandering about). Alas.

Now I'm so busy at work I barely see anything but piles of paperwork and database entries.

Fundraising: sucking all the fun out of fall.

Also, if anyone wants to sponsor Hearth's annual meeting, our funding from the state got cut by $100,000 about two weeks ago, so we could use some help.

I don't understand the economy ....

I mean, it's not a fabulous monster. We're not talking unicorns and dragons. It's a man-made, man-run, man-conceived thing (too many men, that's the problem). If everyone stopped panicking, stopped selling off stocks like there's no tomorrow, stopped freaking out (then there would be no pundits .... or Fox news), then wouldn't everything be reasonably OK (minus all the no-good, greedy banking/mortgage people)?

We are the economy. So everyone stop screaming and just shut up and take a 10 minute time out.

Of course, on the upside, gas is a lot cheaper now.

Am I in Your Way?

From our dear leader: "the only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil resources is action from the U.S. Congress."

By which he really means: "Only the last vestiges of Congress's courage and decency is standing in between possible limited reserves of off-shore oil and lots of money for me and my oil tycoon buddies."

Furthermore, I stand in your way. Me and most of the country which is smart enough to realize that off-shore drilling is not an answer to the problem of our gluttony but only a small snack. Much like those bags of potato chips which look full, but then when you open them, you realize it was mostly puffed up with air.

Hmm..... puffed up with air. Can't think of anybody else that describes ....

Furthermore, I still don't understand why these oil companies don't start investing in new energy alternatives rather than go the way of American car companies: in debt and increasingly obsolete. If I had as much money as Exxon Mobile I'd try doing something decent for a change and fund projects to create cost-effective solar panels or wind turbines - or develope a fusion engine like the DeLorean had at the end of Back to the Future. Where's Doc Brown when we need him?

In the meantime, Bush, you're blocking my rays as you stand on the beach, drooling over the lost City of Atlantis or whatever treasure you think is out there. I'm not moving. Aren't you due for a month vacation? Go clear some brush and let the rest of us get back to work on the looming energy crisis.

In the News ...

I like sudoku as much as the next person, but really ....

The jurors in a long-running Australian drugs trial were discharged in disgrace yesterday after it emerged that some of had spent more time in court playing Su Doku than they had listening to the evidence.
--"Su Doku-loving jurors force judge to abandon major drugs trial" from the London Times

And this is just too good to be true ...

"Single-horned 'Unicorn' deer found in Italy"
ROME (AP) — A deer with a single horn in the center of its head — much like the fabled, mythical unicorn — has been spotted in a nature preserve in Italy, park officials said Wednesday.

Children everywhere (and I) rejoice!

Mommy ... can I get a unicorn?

Gone? Gone!

Good grief!

Lake Devlin, the lake that made Wisconsin Dells famous is gone. I'm probably the last person in the civilized world to have heard about it - but I'm going to blog about it anyway.

It's just crazy. How many Original Wisconsin Duck Tours did I take on that lake?

I'm flabbergasted. Not as much as the flopping carp on the empty lake bed, but still pretty stunned.

At least Noah's Ark is still there ....

Calm in a Crisis

This is the woman I want around when something goes wrong....

MARTINSVILLE, Ind. — Margaret Clemmons stood barefoot on the shoulder of a highway and stared at the floodwaters surrounding her home.

"I believe it's going to call for new carpets," she said.

Violent storms ... um, stormed through the Midwest yesterday. My dad called about 2:00 pm central time and said the sky was dark enough in Green Bay that the solar lights in the yard turned on.

But I have a feeling our carpets are just fine.

How (not) shocking

"Senate Panel Accuses Bush of Iraq Exaggerations"

In a report long delayed by partisan squabbling, the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday accused President Bush and Vice President Cheney of taking the country to war in Iraq by exaggerating evidence of links between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda in the emotional aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Um, how much money and time did the government waste on this? Isn't this really old news? Thanks, NY Times and Federal Government, for sharing this late-breaking news.

A long way to go

Britain announced that it would agree to the cluster bomb treaty and ban the highly dangerous weapons. The BBC posted archived footage of cluster bombs being dropped - and it's scary stuff (unlike other aspects of war? I can't help but add sarcastically ....)

Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross,
said: "Cluster munitions are weapons that never stop killing."

Of course the US is grouped with the delightful nations of Russia, China, India, and Pakistan against such a treaty. How did we get in this position? I guess I shouldn't be so naive - we've always been in this position.

Countries like the US, India, Pakistan and Israel claim such munitions can
be highly useful on the battlefield and want to see the treaty watered
down.

Maybe if (most) of the world signs enough treaties, war will be banned someday ....

Unfortunately, we never stop inventing new ways to kill each other.

Are you kidding?

Headline of Christian Science Monitor piece: "Will Mugabe go out like a lion or a lamb?"

Gee ... I think lion. A man-eating lion, or better yet, a liger "half lion, half tiger, skilled in magic."

I usually think the Monitor is fairly reputable. But that headline is positively Fox News-worthy in its obviousness.

If Mugabe actually cedes control and fades away into history, I'll eat one of my many hats. Honest.

(At the end of the article is this note: "A journalist who could not be named for security reasons contributed from Harare). Yeah, that's the climate of a country with a dictator acting lamb-ish. Is there a kind of lamb I don't know about?

If only it weren't true

U.S. mistakenly ships missile parts to Taiwan
At least it wasn't Iran or Bin Laden's P.O. Box.

We Will Miss You, Gay Cowboy

Heath Ledger has died! I have no reasonable idea why this upsets me so. But when I heard the news last evening, I was quite distraught.

There's really nothing else to say .... it's just too sad.

Am I a Bad Person?

When I signed on to Google this morning, one of the headlines - courtesy of ABC News - read "Cheney's Irregular Heartbeat a Worrying Sign."

Am I a bad person because his irregular heartbeat doesn't worry me at all? And, in fact, actually made me smirk?

While Cheney's death would be shocking - it would be akin to the Terminator actually being destroyed beyond the capacity for another sequel - I would not mourn. I would not sniffle. I would not experience a second of sadness.

Does that make me a bad person?

Good Riddance!

He's finally gone ... I can't believe it took so long to get rid of Alberto Gonzales, but at last he's gone.

Thank goodness.

The British newspaper the Guardian has assembled loads of quotes from both sides of the aisle, such as:

The Justice Department under Gonzales ``suffered a severe crisis of leadership
that allowed our justice system to be corrupted by political influence.'' Senate
Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

``Better late than never.'' - Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards.

``I have lived the American dream. Even my worst days as attorney general have been better than my father's best days.'' - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. (Did he have Disney write that line for him? It's the hoaky sentimental line slapped on to the end of a crappy blockbuster action movie.)

Best headline (well, blog headline, anyway): Don't Go Away Mad, Alberto, Just Go Away

Surprise - It's Dick!

Cheney's made an unannounced visit to Baghdad. He wants to "get a sense of things" and urge the Iraqi Parliament to work together.

A couple of comments on this statement:

1) When's the last time Cheney went anywhere announced?

2) Is he really the person to preach harmony and unity between dissonant groups? I've got another great idea: Cheney should take them all hunting as a male bonding activity. That's a good idea.

I think instead of sending over more troops - depriving more states of their National Guard personnel and equipment during forest fire and tornado seasons - we need to send over Mediators Without Boarders. If that organization doesn't exist someone should create it, stat.

Or, we could just all hold hands across the Middle East and sing "We Are the World." Where's Bono? He could start. And although everyone in the US finds Michael Jackson a joke, globally he's still revered as a superstar - he could be our secret weapon. Send them Michael Jackson.