There’s a classic Monty Python sketch about the death of Mary, Queen of Scots. On the LP I used to listen to in college (remember vinyl) the sound effects indicated a lively beating with caterwauling, and then someone whispers “I think she’s dead, then.” To which Mary replies “No, I’m not” and the whack-whack bang-bang caterwauling begins again. NO, I’m not dead. I’ve just been sorta… busy. 😀 Also, haven’t had a chance to use the Internets for a couple of days. More on that later.
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Democrats Want Independent Katrina Probe – Yahoo! News The videotape captured a briefing, one day before Katrina stuck on Aug. 29, involving then- Federal Emergency Management Agency head Michael Brown, President Bush, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and other officials. Brown and others warned that the storm could breach levees, endanger lives in the New Orleans Superdome and overwhelm rescuers. Five days after the briefing, with most of New Orleans underwater, Bush said, “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.” White House and Homeland Security officials urged the public not to read too much into the video…
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The extremely useful Nevada Thunder blogs a column by Lewis H Lapham of Harpers Magazine. So often, these articles aren’t available online without paying a fee or registration. It’s wonderful to be able to read them in full- or almost full- text. I really appreciate this, particularly for opinion columns hidden behind the New York Times “paid content” wall, and for articles in magazines I don’t normally encounter. Nevada Thunder � Blog Archive � The Case for Impeachment And no, I haven’t forgotten about Sen. John Conyer’s call for the formation of a select committee to investigate the Administration’s intent…
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Polygamist Judge Ordered Off Utah Bench – Yahoo! News SALT LAKE CITY – A small-town judge with three wives was ordered removed from the bench by the Utah Supreme Court on Friday. The court unanimously agreed with the findings of the state’s Judicial Conduct Commission, which recommended the removal of Judge Walter Steed for violating the state’s bigamy law. ADVERTISEMENT Steed has served for 25 years on the Justice Court in the polygamist community of Hildale in southern Utah, where he ruled on misdemeanor crimes such as drunken driving and domestic violence cases. Oh, yeah, that was brilliant – put…
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news > Mondo Washington by James Ridgeway With Michael Roston” href=”http://villagevoice.com/news/0609,roston,72317,2.html”>village voice > news > Mondo Washington by James Ridgeway With Michael Roston A campaign to push the legislation through the U.S. court system up to the Supreme Court where South Dakotans can lead the charge to overturn Roe v. Wade, will cost over $1 million. South Dakota doesn’t have that kind of money. So the Governor is studying ways of accepting into the state treasury private funds with which to wage the battle in the name of the South Dakota citizenry. In short,the well-heeled opponents of abortion are going…
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Ran across this item because I’ve been keeping an eye out for mentions of slack key guitar in general, and George Kahumoku’s concert series in Maui in particular. Both topics are mentioned in this article from the Maui News, but what the writer has to say about true family values is worth noting: MAKING THE SCENE: All in the family For all the talk of “family values†in recent years that has actually been used to drive cultural wedges between groups of people, our chance to tag along on this Maui vacation was more of a spiritual homecoming. It was…
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Apparently, using the gay marriage issue to rally the rabidly religious Right in 2004 wasn’t enough. New for 2006: The brand new Anti Gay Adoption Extravaganza! I don’t want kids of my own, but I support the right of anyone who does want to have them, by any legal means. And by legal, I mean by not kidnapping them, or swiping embryos, or anything like that. I don’t mean by being gay and wanting to have children by adoption. That should be legal, but a number of states don’t allow it (including Florida and of course Utah). And it seems…
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Recently in Barack Obama – U.S. Senator for Illinois‘s blog, he posted a reaction to the State of the Union speech, focusing on hybrid cars and the American auto industry. I’ve been meaning to respond to this for a while, because we own a Ford Escape Hybrid. I was reminded of this vague intention because we followed another Ford Escape Hybrid last night after dinner, which always gets us talking about the technology, the pigheadedness of goverment in not getting behind the concept more, and so on. Obama says: The precariousness of an oil economy, crushing healthcare costs, and the…
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We went to Bob Chinn‘s yesterday to help Steve celebrate a birthday. It was a typicaly Bob Chinny experrience: waitstaff in Hawaiian aloha shirts with tropical fish, a huge dining room with the handwashing stations everywhere that were supposed to look like barrels of Myers’ Rum (an ingredient in the famous Bob Chinn Mai Tai) and bits of crab shell and aerosolized drawn butter floating in a fine mist over our heads. A word not often heard at Bob Chinn’s was used: “traife.” Well, most of us were not concerned with that, and we tried to keep the spray and…
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Overheard at the Starbuck’s today, while waiting for some much-needed “go juice” for my brain: Man behind a long line of people ordering chai soy-milk frothy venti lattes: “They should have a fast line for the people ordering non-froufy, plain black coffees.” Women in line ahead of me: “But we want our froufy drinks – do you want to cut ahead?” Man: “No, I’ve got plenty of time before my flight, I just wish I could walk up, get my coffee, and go.” Me, after some reflection: “But that would mean I’d have to stand in two lines, because my…