Wednesday, June 15, 2005

All This Is That Traffic Notes


click chart to enlarge

This chart shows the tally of today's visitors to this blog, broken out by country and domains. You can't tell what country the domains or the "IP address only" country, so you'd have to guess probably the U.S. Interesting. . .
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Deep Throat Led Probes To Find ... Deep Throat

AP file
Updated: 7:16 p.m. ET June 14, 2005

NEW YORK - Mark Felt, the former FBI official who unmasked himself as the legendary "Deep Throat" source who leaked Watergate secrets, twice led FBI probes into finding Deep Throat, The Nation magazine said Tuesday. Click on the title to link to the full story on MSNBC.COM.

Painting: Cyclops!


click painting to enlarge

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Happy Flag Day!


click image to enlarge

A great flag scene from one of my favorite movies.

No one celebrates Flag Day much anymore. When I was a kid, I remember flags every five feet, up and down each side of Meeker Street. The D.A.V. and Civitan Clubs sold flags and lapel flags on the street corner.

About half the country seems to be have magnetic bunting and pro-war ribbons attached to their cars. There were flags everywhere following September 11, 2001, but the actual fervor has visibly dimiished. You'd think every street in America would be awash in flags with the resurgence in jingoism following 9/11.

At the risk of being a reprobate to the Democratic/leftist flange, I think flag waving is OK.

At the risk of being anathema to the Republican/hard rightists, I think flag burning is OK too. It usually seems kind of silly, but it does get attention with its shock factor.
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Jacko Cheats The Jailer


click to enlarge

Monday, June 13, 2005

Federal Election Commission Blog Crackdown

The proposed new FEC regulations on blogs seek to apply federal campaign finance rules to online publications.

This could affect any blog with content about U.S. politics (which includes this blog). Among the Federal Elections Commission proposals:

Mandatory disclaimers on political blogs
Team blogs must register as a "political committee"
Bloggers to file campaign expenditure reports


Click on the title of this posting to read the proposed FEC rules.
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Christina Aguilera Used To Torture Prisoners At Guantanamo Bay Prison Camp

TIME OBTAINS SECRET INTERROGATION LOG FROM GUANTANAMO; INCLUDES MOMENT-BY-MOMENT ACCOUNT OF INTERROGATION OF DETAINEE WHO U.S. BELIEVES WAS THE ‘20TH HIJACKER’


The interrogation sessions lengthen. The quizzing now starts at midnight, and when Detainee 063 dozes off, interrogators rouse him by dripping water on his head or playing Christina Aguilera music. According to the log, his handlers at one point perform a puppet show “satirizing the detainee’s involvement with al-Qaeda.” He is taken to a new interrogation booth, which is decorated with pictures of 9/11 victims, American flags and red lights. He has to stand for the playing of the U.S. national anthem. His head and beard are shaved. He is returned to his original interrogation booth. A picture of a 9/11 victim is taped to his trousers. Al-Qahtani repeats that he will “not talk until he is interrogated the proper way.” At 7 a.m. on Dec. 4, after a 12-hour, all-night session, he is put to bed for a four-hour nap, TIME reports.

Sunday, June 12, 2005

Audioblogger: A Quick Harmonica Break

this is an audio post - click to play

Painting: The Three Fates - Clotho, Lachesis, Atropos


click image to enlarge

Dwarf Slays Sasquatch!

the dwarf with his quarry

From The Weekly World News
By Michael Chiron

In what astounded forest rangers are calling a "modern-day version of David versus Goliath," a 36-inch-tall dwarf killed a towering 9- foot-tall Bigfoot as it chased a half-naked blonde hiker through his campsite in Yellowstone National Park!

Pint-sized Pete Yarosky proved he has a heart as big a lion's when he brought down the rampaging man-beast -- armed only with a handful of small stones and the screaming woman's thong underwear, which the quick-thinking shrimp converted into a makeshift sling. "Mr. Yarosky struck the creature near the right temple where the skull is thinnest, knocking it cold -- then he chopped it's head off with an ax." confirms an Interior Department investigator. "He showed remarkable courage and resourcefulness in a situation that would have made most of us 'normal' men freeze in terror. "He's one brave little guy."

The terrifying encounter occurred Feb. 13 as Yarosky, 38, camped with three buddies in the northwest part of the park. "I really wanted to show my friends I could handle myself outdoors," the Lincoln, Neb.- based Ferris wheel inspector recalls. "But, instead, I ended up slowing down the group -- one pal actually had to give me a piggyback ride part of the way."

Shortly after daybreak, at a campsite less than 150 yards away, hiker April Holderman was doing her morning toe touches, clad in her undies. "Suddenly I got this creepy feeling I was being watched, " the attractive 23-year-old recalls. "Then this giant apeman jumped down from a tree branch, leering. I bolted, screaming my head off." When April ran into the clearing where Yarosky was camped, with the enormous Sasquatch at her heels, his chums fled in panic. But the gutsy dwarf held his ground. "I told April to stand behind me and I kept yelling at the Bigfoot, 'Go away,' " the half-pint hero says. "But I knew he could squash me like a bug."

Desperate for a weapon, Yarosky picked up a fistful of stones and prayed for a miracle. Suddenly, the image of David slaying Goliath came into his mind. "Out of left field, this little dwarf guy asks for my thong," April recalls. "There was no time to argue, so I yanked it off. "As the Bigfoot bore down on us, Pete put a stone in his 'sling.' He started swinging it overhead -- then he let it rip. "The rock beaned the Bigfoot and the thing keeled over."

The Bigfoot's carcass has been carted away to an undisclosed research facility and tight-lipped wildlife officials refuse to confirm the incident on record. Conservationists object to Yarosky -- who's now dating grateful April -- being hailed as a hero for slaying an ultra-rare Bigfoot. But zoologist Thomas Smith points out: "Bigfoot sex assaults on humans are up 62 percent. Mr. Yarosky undoubtedly saved this woman from an unspeakable fate."
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