From the Everett Washington Herald...

Witnesses told police the man was northbound on Wenatchee Avenue and drifted into a southbound lane for less than a block. Oncoming traffic stopped and waited for the man to pass, Smith said.
He then totaled his car on a light pole, Smith said.
When police asked the man what caused the accident, his one-word answer was "pterodactyl," Smith said.

A breathalyzer test showed "a minimal amount of alcohol," said Wenatchee police Sgt. Cherie Smith. I wonder if State Farm will cover it - or are prehistoric reptiles like flood water in a hurricane...

hehehehe
i love this (settle in for a read - i wonder what Henry Jenkins over at MIT would say about this one.

This is a long coffee conversation - and considering my penchant for rattling off odd commentary about the Volin reforms in late czarist russia over coffee - i figure everyone is better off if i just leave it at the article itself ;)

When the US kills someone it doesnt like, like David Kelly (found with a 'letter opener he used to do the deed - which had been wiped clean of fingerprints...) we tend to leave it open to the 'tinfoil hat' defense. Putin pulled that with Litvinenko using Polonium - they got sloppy in the sense that no one looks much under the surface in Russia - so they just didnt expect anyone to dispute their denial. Today I see Musharraf has tried to learn from his masters - only in this case i really think there'll be more blowback. It's easy to whine about a prominent suicide - witness Vince Foster - but an act like this is somewhat harder to excuse. If they cant protect one of the 2 biggest political leaders in their country from a man oozing nitrates and carrying a gun getting close enough to put 2 into her head - can they protect their nuclear stockpile?

Here's to hoping everyone had a great Xmas.... and that everyone got everything they wanted (well, except for magic wands - i dont think it matters how much glitter you put in the reindeer oatmeal as a bribe, santa really cant go around handing those things out). Lot of people had tight belts this xmas - but remember that for some it's been tighter... hopefully everyone has a happy and healthy end and start to the new year - and for those struggling with frustrations of all kinds remember to enjoy your days no matter what they bring.

21 million...

Once again - the US plays games with international trade agreements... I hope China and Russia are watching this carefully - because this is clear evidence that the WTO is rigged in the west's favor. Not only that - but if I were a nation like Costa Rica who has lost so very much money as a result of this action - I'd withdraw from international copyright treaties altogether - why bother trying to play by the rules at all when you get screwed in a way you cant appeal. I'd say the European countries would be a bit more aggressive in their own defense - since they've had billions in market capitalization wiped off the books - but it's not happening. This doesn't just smell of corruption - it reeks of it.

There was really only one response to this...



Happy Holidays... (man, i'm gonna be hummin that song all afternoon)

--> insert ex-wife joke here <--

So... am i the only one who finds the the buyer of this object ironic? (for those of you not playing along... here's a nudge)

I wonder if Dick will wipe his ass with it too...

The FISA debate... Reid buckled.
The text of the debate on this bill should be required reading for every civics classroom in America. Dodd absolutely railed against his opponents - and the idiots that are the Republicans in the senate managed some unbelievable commentary. My favorite though...

“The civil libertarians among us would rather defend the constitution than protect our nation’s security.” -- Sen Sessions from Alabama.

Let me make something perfectly clear to you asshole... if that 'g-d piece of paper' fails - then so does our nation. When you look at that 'goddamned piece of paper' - look at those three words written larger than all the rest, and with special pride never written before or since -- tall words, proudly saying "We the people"... It is the holiest of holies - and it DEFINES this country. If this nation falls - but fails true to the convictions of THAT document - then it cannot be accounted a complete loss. That 'piece of paper' will ALWAYS be greater than some dickhead all-hat-one-cow rancher from Connecticut - or another fatassed moron from Alabama who wants a bunch of jerkoffs at AT&T to get away with illegally letting you read my email and listen to my phonecalls. Jeff Sessions can go fuck a goat.

(dont ask me how i really feel)

TERRORIST BRINGS DOWN PLANE IN NASHVILLE
(or something like that)

So the senate invoked cloture to limit debate on the FISA bill before Dodd had a chance to lock everything up. He can do no more than 30 hours of damage.

If this bill passes
The democratic party will never see a dime of my money. No Democratic candidate - not even the son of god his-holy-self - will ever see my vote - and i will do all i can, both personally and professionally, to make sure any company I build will be built overseas and support the US government fiscally as little as possible. I've said it before - this is my personal line in the sand. Senator Dodd, upon taking the floor, said "I rarely come to the floor with this much anger. I've never seen contempt of the rule of law such as this." I am at least as incensed (and there, on CSPAN, is John Fucking Cornyn talking about how Islamofascist Terrorists are using PHONES to plan terrorist attacks... well no shit sherlock... they use WORDS too... why not cut out everyone's tongue or cut off their fingers and feed them finger sushi like machine girl. Or are we to the point where we pay people to inform on crazy people - supply them with money so they can purchase 'terrorist uniforms' - and then fail miserably to prosecute them when it turns out they're just a bunch of morons instead of a group 'as dangerous as al qaeda determined to blow up the sears tower' - and call that vigilance.

I am *this* close to giving up. Senator Reid - you are an abomination.

UPDATE: Reid buckled. They put it off till January... these guys need to figure out if they want to be the guys in the white hats or not.

Lets see...
Celine Dion takes final bow in Vegas
Football Legend Joe Namath Graduates
Tats, Baggy Pants Out - Gangs get makeover
Sonny Bono's Widow Remarries

These were the big stories on CNN this afternoon

On the BBC? They were all variations on this

There's a reason we elect morons.

Sure, they start out cute... but the next thing you know Dick Van Patten is getting shot. Still - give it 5 or 10 years and these could be a lot of fun.

There are days when i lob a lot of bottles off into the ether... emails... text messages... phone calls to voice mail... and being out here in bumfuck, well, a lot of times that's really my only connection to the reality of human contact (at least until something that smells like work kicks in)... So when i send a note to a friend and it goes unanswered, or people tell me to clear a day so we can get together - only to find the day come and go without so much as a whisper... well - lets just say that's a bit more annoying for some of us than others. Still - its normal... people have lots of their own life crap to sort through - no guarantees there's time to burn entertaining me...

but with the holidays in full swing - and with many doing family things (i know how it is) - it's just a matter of how very quiet it gets. This is probably why i hear the complex subtext in the loaded 'what are you doing for xmas' question. Truth be told - i'm happy doing what i'm doing - i've always been comfortable by myself (else i couldnt do jobs involving me in foreign countries for months alone), even when i was immersed in the whole 'keep sherry happy' game. Still - if the few times i bother to try to do something with or contact people they blow me off - i'm going to be in the corner making wooden starfish.