( Read more... )

Mark Twain once said that the point-and-click system of computer operation, while terrible, was at least six times better than any other graphic interface ever invented (or something like that). In honor of the great man, I'm pausing to rank all of the point-and-click devices I've used over the course of my computing career:

5. The laptop clitoris. ( Read more... )

Okay, I'm not normally in favor of humorous advertising jingles, or satirical fake humorous advertising jingles. And I'm definitely not in favor of extreme depilation - I like a more, ahem, natural look.

Still, this music video ode to the Phillips Bodygroom kind of kills me. The link will take you to the main menu page - click on the razor at the ( Read more... )

Well, Bush is at it again, making up his own words as he goes along:

"Q The U.S. has the most powerful military in the world, and they have been unable to bring down the violence in any substantial way in several of the provinces. So how can you expect the Iraqis to do that?

"PRESIDENT BUSH: If one were to measure progress on the number of ( Read more... )

So I went to my zen center this Sunday to while away the morning sitting and staring at a wall. Good times, good times. Afterward, as usual, we had tea and discussion.

One of the things that came up during discussion was our desperate need for new board members. One thing led to another (as it does) and now it looks like I'm going to be the group's ( Read more... )

I've been thinking about our current debate on immigration for a while now, but I've been hesitant to write anything because I think at some level it's all smoke and mirrors. We need the workers, we've got a massive population of poor folks to the south of us (whose poverty the U.S. has had a hand in creating and maintaining) - they're coming. Game ( Read more... )

Here's another wrinkle in the administration's phone records search: they are apparently routinely checking on reporter's phone records to see if they can identify employees in the federal government who leak information to the press.

Check out this item on ABC News:

The FBI acknowledged late Monday that it is increasingly  seeking reporters' phone ( Read more... )

Thanks to all who came out for my birthday celebration on Saturday - and to those of you I don't remember drunkenly offending, my apologies.

It was the most booze-tastic birthday ever. Or, at least, the most booze-tastic since last year's, when I woke up the next morning, went to brush my teeth and suddenly thought, "Wait...did I ride a mechanical ( Read more... )

By now, I think we're all used to the idea that our government hands out fat contracts to friends of the Bush administration - no-bid deals in Iraq for KBR, similar stuff in New Orleans.

And I had been thinking of all that stuff in terms of plain old corruption - sure, maybe on a larger scale than we'd seen before, but still a 'you scratch my back, ( Read more... )

So the White House has issued talking points on Iraq to the high-level functionaries...at the USDA.

You might think this is an odd fit - how would the meat-grading folks ever even find an occasion to talk about our military engagements overseas? Like, this, as it turns out:

Several topics I'd like to talk about today -- Farm Bill, trade with Japan, ( Read more... )