Everybody needs a little cuteness

There haven't been nearly enough James pictures up recently. Here's some of him having fun on Christmas.

And I love Claire's idea of posting a midnight New Year's photo! If you don't have access to a digital camera written posts will also be happily accepted.


We had a White Christmas! James loves the snow.


James celebrates his Jewish roots with a Bagel squeaky from his grandma.

Buckle up, it's going to be a very dangerous four years

Alright, so I'm neither military nor intelligence specialist. But I can safely claim that I do have common sense. (Talking about now, not college).
Concerning warfare and intelligence gathering, wouldn't you agree that one should get the information and then engage into military operation? Well, heads up everyone, because our favourite man in the Pentagon apparently has decided to innovate on that system, namely, to give the military the job of the CIA. It's replacing 'intelligent fighting' (some may argue as to whether that actually exists) with 'fighting for intelligence'. I mean, it's akin to taking the exam before taking the class!

The last time Rumsfeld had anything to do with intelligence, he found a link between Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden.

More info in the Op-Ed by Bob Herbert (Dec 27 2004). Apart perhaps that paragraph that starts with "the worl is not a video game". Yeh, we know.

Homework assignment

Hey kids, it'd be really neat if everyone posted on this site a picture of themselves right around midnight on the 31st... Thanks.

Paul, I thought you were a writer already...?

I'm a WRITER!

Hey yall, I finally got my own PW Torch Lounge article. My thoughts and opinions will be diseminated on a weekly basis. The wrestling world will never be the same again. No wait, I meant it WILL be the same for ever. Oh my.

Anyway, Happy Holidays to EVERYONE. Keeping you all in my thoughts.

Idiot Box

Hey gang--thought I'd go for the trifecta. This is an interesting discussion I found on DailyKos, my favorite progressive blog. The initial post is a scary forecast of the rapidly approaching economic collapse, and is required reading. The responses to the first post kind of turn into a critique of television advertising and its role in said collapse. At least, for the first thirty or forty posts--I didn't make it through all 235. Merry Christmas, all's y'all.

The Wrath of the Moononites, uh, Moonies, I mean...

So over at Paul and Ali's tonight the subject of the Unification Church arose, and I promised Ali that I would post the links to articles aboutthe Reverend Moon's campaign to hoodwink Christian churches into destroying their crosses, and Moon's coronation in a United States Senate building.. For greater breadth of investigation, check out this blog run by the journalist who broke the story. Read these articles, and hold tight to your chair, because they will make your head spin so fast that you might fall down. Seriously. Truth is stranger than fiction, and this shit is straight out of George Bush Bizarro World times a billion. I found a ton of stuff just by doing a google search on "sun myung moon crowned". One last thought--why wasn't this a huge news story in American mass media? Man gets crowned as Messiah by US Congressmen, you'd think there would be an uproar. Crazy fucking country.

Air America Eases the Pain...

Hey, congrats Ali! It's all downhill from here, probably.

In other news, Wrestling Superstar Mick Foley will be guest-hosting the Air America Radio show Morning Sedition next week, the 28th and 29th! I heard a snippet this morning of a bit he did on the show a few months ago, and he has lost none of his mic skills. Set your dials, ladeez and gennelmen, because the MickMan cometh.

DONE!

DONE! DONE! DONE! DONE! DONE!
done with my first semester!!!
(happy snoopy dance)

As if Guantanamo wasn't enough

For three month, the US army in Iraq detained a Kiwi, Andreas Schafer, and now denies ever having known he was held captive and interrogated every day. First article mentionning his disappearing here. Second article after he was let out.

But look! There's a variation to this. When in another country (namely, Saudi Arabia), one can also hand in a US citizen suspected of terrorism (namely, Mr. Ahmed Abu Ali of Falls Church, Va.) over to the local and much more ruthless authorities to get answers. Perfect to avoid constitutional scrutiny on as to what treatment does a prisoner actually get.


I'm sorry, but a democracy that loops around civil rights like that, there's a loss of credibility somewhere (and this is only Abu Ghraib light)...

Whoa mama!

Hey kids, I'm in the thick of school right now and can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel, although it's very faint.
But I just got this bit of good news-- I've been accepted into the LOMAP 2005 field-work season in Cambodia this summer. Scary? Yes! Exciting? Yes? Awesome? Definitely.

More after I finish my first semester, some time next week.

Hilarious skeleton action!

I feel like a blog-sponge, relentlessly cribbing from Mark Evanier's blog (he is a noted comic-book and animated television writer, and a true scholar of comics and animation). He just has the best links! Dig this from Michael Paulus: Skeletons of animated cartoon characters

Anagram Engine!

WWW.WORDSMITH.ORG/ANAGRAM is a neat anagram generator I found over Thanksgiving. Kind of a stress to sort through all the options, but there are some good ones. Here's results for "Pendar Paul Madavi". I like Paladin Pravda Emu, and Puma Diaper Vandal, and Avid Applauder Man, and Dual Panda Vampire, for that matter. Enjoy!