http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/769...

Outsource your job to get a new one! This is the new mantra doing the rounds in the US IT sector.

Programmers are outsourcing their software modules to cheap and efficient labour in India. This way they get the best of both worlds- more money and more time...

According to this concept the techie is able to give himself a promotion outsourcing the specific modules to one or more Indian techies . While he takes the charge as a overall project manager...

Says a programmer on Slashdot.org who outsourced his job: "About a year ago I hired a developer in India to do my job. I pay him $12,000 out of the $67,000 I get. He's happy to have the work. I'm happy that I have to work only 90 minutes a day just supervising the code. My employer thinks I'm telecommuting. Now I'm considering getting a second job and doing the same thing."...

http://www.reason.com/hitandrun/006531.shtml#00653...

In the latest issue of Harper's, Lewis Lapham has a long, tiresome essay on the "Republican propaganda mill"...

Perhaps the most revealing part of the article is the paragraph where Lapham pretends to have heard the speeches at the Republican National Convention that does not open until a week from today...Lapham writes:

...the issue is dated September, but I got my copy in early August, and Lapham must have written those words in July. Didn't it occur to him that his readers might notice he was claiming to have witnessed an event that had not occurred when the magazine went to press? Evidently, Republicans are not the only ones Lapham thinks are stupid.

Cammie's a ratter

Or at least a mouser.

Susan called me to let me know that Cammie had brought a dead mouse to her and dropped it at her feet.

Weird. I would have expected she'd eat it. Maybe she had eaten a couple, and she was full.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion...

August 22, 2004

IMAGINE IF supporters of Bill Clinton had tried in 1996 to besmirch the military record of his opponent, Bob Dole...

No one in 1996 questioned that record...

http://www.tedellis.net/dole-article.htm

Dole's War Record

As published in The Nation

Aug12/19, 1996

...the following composite picture of Dole's combat exploits emerges:

* In 1942, at the age of 19, Dole immediately answered his country's call...

* His unit was constantly under fire...

* His men considered him an aggressive, "recklessly brave" leader...

* For his "heroism under fire," he was awarded two Bronze Stars.

Yet all of the above is either untrue or exaggerated.

http://www.truthlaidbear.com/archives/2004/08/22/5...

"They're funded by hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Republican contributor out of Texas. They're a front for the Bush campaign. And the fact that the president won't denounce what they're up to tells you everything you need to know -- he wants them to do his dirty work." --- John Kerry on Swift Boat Veterans for Truth

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth
Receipts: $ 158,750

Media Fund
Receipts: $ 28,127,488

America Coming Together
Receipts: $26,905,450

MoveOn.org
Receipts: $9,086,102

Service Employees International Union
$ 16,652,296

American Fedn of St/Cnty/Munic Employees
$ 13,658,207

New Democrat Network
$ 7,172,693

Voices For Working Families
$ 3,668,280

Partnership for America's Families
$ 3,071,211

the candidate running on the contrast between his and [ his opponent's ] military record, [ but ] his campaign isn't eager to give a more accurate account... [ the candidate ] mainly speaks about his wound and rehabilitation. He has passed up several opportunities to correct the exaggerated versions in biographies, and in the case of his self-wounding has even approved a sanitized account in which his [ incompetence ] goes unnoted. Journalists continue to portray him as a hero, winner of [ varioud medals ]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/22/magazine/22DEPRE...

This traditional way of thinking about suffering helps to explain why mild depression was never considered a disease. ''Melancholia, sensitivity, fragility -- these are not negative things in a Japanese context,'' Tooru Takahashi, a psychiatrist who worked for Japan's National Institute of Mental Health for 30 years, explained. ''It never occurred to us that we should try to remove them, because it never occurred to us that they were bad.''

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0408/schanberg....

...Senator John Kerry... covered up voluminous evidence that a significant number of live American prisoners - perhaps hundreds - were never acknowledged or returned after the war-ending treaty was signed in January 1973...

The Massachusetts senator...carried out this subterfuge a little over a decade ago - shredding documents, suppressing testimony, and sanitizing the committee's final report - when he was chairman of the Senate Select Committee on P.O.W./ M.I.A. Affairs...

Over the years, an abundance of evidence had come to light that the North Vietnamese, while returning 591 U.S. prisoners of war after the treaty signing, had held back many others as future bargaining chips for the $4 billion or more in war reparations...

What was the body of evidence that prisoners were held back? A short list would include more than 1,600 firsthand sightings of live U.S. prisoners; nearly 14,000 secondhand reports; numerous intercepted Communist radio messages from within Vietnam and Laos about American prisoners being moved by their captors from one site to another; a series of satellite photos that continued into the 1990s showing clear prisoner rescue signals carved into the ground in Laos and Vietnam, all labeled inconclusive by the Pentagon; multiple reports about unacknowledged prisoners from North Vietnamese informants working for U.S. intelligence agencies, all ignored or declared unreliable; persistent complaints by senior U.S. intelligence officials...that live-prisoner evidence was being suppressed; and clear proof that the Pentagon and other keepers of the "secret" destroyed a variety of files over the years to keep the P.O.W./M.I.A. families and the public from finding out and possibly setting off a major public outcry...

The resignation of Colonel Millard Peck in...Kerry committee's tenure, was one of many vivid landmarks in this saga's history... In his damning departure statement, he wrote: "The mind-set to 'debunk' is alive and well. It is held at all levels ... Practically all analysis is directed to finding fault with the source. Rarely has there been any effective, active follow-through on any of the sightings ... The sad fact is that ... a cover-up may be in progress. The entire charade does not appear to be an honest effort and may never have been."...

What did Kerry do in furtherance of the cover-up? An overview would include the following: He allied himself with those carrying it out by treating the Pentagon and other prisoner debunkers as partners in the investigation instead of the targets they were supposed to be. In short, he did their bidding. When Defense Department officials were coming to testify, Kerry would have his staff director, Frances Zwenig, meet with them to "script" the hearings - as detailed in an internal Zwenig memo leaked by others. Zwenig also advised North Vietnamese officials on how to state their case. Further, Kerry never pushed or put up a fight to get key government documents unclassified; he just rolled over, no matter how obvious it was that the documents contained confirming data about prisoners. Moreover, after promising to turn over all committee records to the National Archives when the panel concluded its work, the senator destroyed crucial intelligence information the staff had gathered to to keep the documents from becoming public. He refused to subpoena past presidents and other key witnesses...

Schlesinger....the former defense secretary, who earlier had been CIA chief, was asked a simple question: "In your view, did we leave men behind?"

He replied: "I think that as of now, I can come to no other conclusion." ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/21/international/eu...

...Russia has become a land of pirating...

http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2004/08/spin...

...The puzzle - there was a time...when Kerry's press releases described an odd gap in his service:

What about that two year service gap?...

These were the two years during which he met privately with a North Vietnamese delegation and accused his fellow soldiers of war crimes...

his miltary records answered the...question - there was no two year service gap...

So - the Kerry campaign launched in early 2003 and for more than a year ran the wrong information about their war hero's miltary service...

the NY Times...wrote...

Do you suppose the Kerry people prefer the Times version, or would they prefer to see

You make the call!

Temperature: 73 F
Dewpoint: 72 F
Humidity: 94%

http://www2.townonline.com/arlington/localRegional...

...The Symmes land disposition agreement...was not completed in time for a Monday night meeting at the Senior Center...

The broadest terms of the deal were explained... The project will feature 15 percent affordable housing, with another 5 percent dedicated to income-eligible town employees...

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/20/national/20fligh...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A155...

The shoes are bad for a woman's feet. They can wreak havoc on the knees, the back, the joints. High heels shift a woman's center of gravity making her more likely to stumble. A woman cannot run in high heels, leaving her vulnerable.

http://www.vandelay.com/2004/08/klugman-v-krugman_...

we compare the characters (truthfully, mostly Oscar Madison with the occasional Quincy) portrayed by one of America's most beloved TV actors, Jack Klugman, with [ NYT leftist editorialist ] Paul Krugman!

Klugman: Has ulcers caused by beer, spicy food, alimony, gambling and persnickety roommate.

Krugman: Has ulcers caused by knowledge that someone somewhere is getting a tax cut.

http://www.poorandstupid.com/2004_08_15_chronArchi...

On March 9, 2004 Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer won reelection with 12,422 votes out of the 24,375 ballots cast. However, to avoid a runoff Dyer needed to break the 50%, which he did in the end by only 234 votes, and with the help of a good number of absentee ballots.

As it turns out, 264 of those absentee ballots were witnessed by Ezzie Thomas...

Mr. Thomas was paid $10,000 by Mayor Dyer to collect absentee ballots for the election and that his handling of absentee ballots has been under scrutiny in the past...

second place finisher Ken Mulvaney ... interviewed a number of absentee ballot voters and eventually produced 42 signed affidavits alleging mishandling of ballots.

On April 8 a circuit judge in Orlando decided there was enough evidence to proceed with the suit. Additionally, Mulvaney's complaint sparked the FDLE criminal investigation which Herbert decries as a concerted effort to suppress the black vote.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/jwz/375211.html#c...

Alien vs. Predator:

First, I note with surprise that there are only 12 hits for "alien vs predator" "slash fiction".

The effects are good... Pretty much everything else sucks...

I haven't read the Alien vs. Predator comics (I could smell the stink on that shit from a mile away) so maybe some of this made more sense there (but I doubt it.)

http://www.dynamist.com/weblog/archives/001264.htm...

[T] he WaPost...and the NYT...have suddenly discovered that the Bush administration has taken a dim view of regulation. Now John Kerry is ...joining the chorus of condemnation...

The reporters take the attitude that any restriction approved by "activists" and disapproved by "business" must be good--end of debate.

This NYT graphic tells the story...

Taken as a whole, this latest media campaign offers an answer to an oft-asked question: Why on earth would a libertarian vote for George W. Bush?

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/18/dining/18ALAS.ht...

MCCARTHY, Alaska

KIRSTEN RICHARDSON, a cook who lives here, wanted to make some gnocchi to go with salmon a friend had pulled from the nearby Copper River. But a quick check of the pantry told her she needed Parmesan cheese and eggs, among other staples. So Ms. Richardson left her cabin in this tiny village deep inside Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, and made the 600-mile round trip to Anchorage.

After stocking up, she drove eight hours east from Anchorage, to where the gravel road ends at the Kennicott River, a torrent of cold water and gray silt passable only by footbridge. She hauled her food over it and stashed a 20-pound bag of Walla Walla onions in a friend's root cellar.

One of the longest glaciers in the world is just a few miles away, and natural refrigeration is available to anyone with a pickax.

...

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=118312&cid;=999...

Congratulations, Howard, you're discovered free markets. Self-organizing, self-optimizing.

Best of all, gussy it up with some techie-speak and no one will ever notice you're repeating one of the best sellers of '76.

1776.

we haven't eaten out for two whole days, which is getting to be a bit of a strain, frankly, and which... militates for eating out

http://www.shirky.com/writings/spectrum_public_goo...

Most issues the FCC deals with...are changes within regulatory schemes...Unlicensed spectrum is different.

the FCC could live up to its mandate of managing spectrum on behalf of the public, by allowing for and even encouraging engineering practices that treat spectrum itself as a public good. A public good, in economic terms, is something that is best provisioned for everyone (an economic characteristic called non-excludability) and which anyone can use without depleting the resource (a characteristic called non-rival use -- individual users aren't rivals for the resource.)

Things like shoes, cars, and houses are all property. Property is excludable -- it is easy to prevent others from using it -- and rival -- meaning that one person's use of it will interfere with another person's use of it. Spectrum has neither characteristic. Spectrum is purely descriptive -- a frequency is just a particular number of waves a second -- so no one can own a particular frequency of spectrum in the same way no one can own a particular color of light.

Instead, when an organization 'owns' spectrum, what they really have is a contract guaranteeing Federal prosecution if someone else broadcasts on their frequency in their area. The regulatory costs of forcing spectrum to emulate property are enormous, but worthwhile so long as it leads to better use of spectrum than other methods can. That used to be true. No longer.

Spectrum is currently valuable because it is scarce, and it is scarce because it is treated like property...

The potential threat to spectrum holders is clear. We have a set of arguments for creating and enforcing property rights for things that aren't actually property...

The rationale for all these rights, however, is to reward their creators for novel intellectual work. This does not offer much relief to spectrum holders seeking a justification for continued Government enforcement of scarcity.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/16/business/16walma...

Wal-mart, stung by criticism of its labor practices, expansion plans and other business tactics, is turning to public radio, public television and even journalists in training to try to improve its image...

Wal-Mart announced plans to award $500,000 in scholarships to minority students at journalism programs...

John Siegenthaler, founder of the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University, said, "Wal-Mart is doing what most corporations do: when they feel pain, they try to salve the wound." He predicted that "they may get less out of it than they expect to"...

NPR's ombudsman, Jeffrey Dvorkin... wrote in his NPR.org online column, "Wal-Mart symbolizes values that some listeners believe to be antithetical to the values of public radio" and suggested that "one way that NPR could prove that underwriting has no effect on its integrity is for NPR to produce more hard-hitting interviews, more investigative reporting and yes, even more scandalizing satires."

Jannette L. Dates, dean of Howard University's John H. Johnson School of Communications, hopes that Wal-Mart's scholarship will encourage other nonmedia companies to contribute.

"I'm going to go after some of those others and say 'See, Wal-Mart did this, why don't you?' " she said.

http://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2004/08.htm...

Well, at the Dickies show, someone with one of the bands broke through the cage and stole a few bottles of booze. This is extra lame, considering that we are always generous with the drink tickets. But hey, it's punk rock to "stick it to The Man", right? Still, given that only 150 people showed up, they might want to wait for a night when The Man was actually making any money. Perhaps they didn't realize that they had already stuck it to The Man by simply not being very popular.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/15/magazine/15QUEST...

NYT: As a professor of economics at Yale, you are known for creating an econometric equation that has predicted presidential elections with relative accuracy.

Ray C. Fair: My latest prediction shows that Bush will receive 57.5 percent of the two-party votes. ......Historically, issues like war haven't swamped the economics. If the equation is correctly specified, then the chances that Bush loses are very small.

...

NYT: It saddens me that you teach this to students at Yale, who could be thinking about society in complex and meaningful ways.

http://www.town.arlington.ma.us/Public_Documents/A...

http://www.lexingtonma.org/LexDir/towndocs/gbl/byl...

(ARTICLE 28, section 2)

Step 1: make web based comic with weird art style that appeals to noone besides us.

Step 2: ??

Step 3: IPO

Step 4: Profits!

http://www.friendsofmenotomy.org/images/sepia_pond...

Good grief. I've just discovered that my favorite word, tchotchke, or chachka, which I've always understood to mean "a cheap showy trinket," can also refer to "a mistress." The irony is that I've long been using this as a term of abuse for individuals, male or female, of dubious moral virtue, if you catch my drift. In fact, there's no drift. This term of abuse has come to encompass, over time, any and all individuals engaging in practices I find irksome, including, for example...

(a) not surrendering large caches of diamonds, amethysts, or rubies to me voluntarily, thus causing headaches down the road when I am obligated to forcibly "nationalize" said resources on behalf of sovereign Brooklyn, of which I am the sole freebooting representative, and fashion them into elaborate necklaces with which to lasso my pampered, perfumed albino camels;

http://www.politics1.com/p2004.htm

http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2004/08/20040813...

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2...

VIENNA -- A papal emissary investigating suspected homosexuality and possession of child pornography among student priests shut down the seminary at the center of the scandal yesterday, acknowledging his probe had bared "very painful" disclosures of sexual misconduct.

Bishop Klaus Kueng announced the decision three weeks after Pope John Paul II appointed him to examine allegations that seminarians were hoarding child pornography and had snapped photos showing themselves fondling one another...

Since the first discovery of pornographic images late last year, authorities have found about 40,000 photos and numerous videos, including child pornography, on computers at the seminary in the diocese of St. Poelten. Other photographs of seminary students kissing and fondling one another and their older religious instructors at the seminary also have been found. Some photos were published in Austrian media and triggered a public uproar that prompted the pope to dispatch Kueng to contain the scandal...

You have been busy [ blogging ]

http://radio.weblogs.com/0105910/2004/08/11.html

By combining RFID tags containing photosensors with portable projectors, researchers from Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs (MERL) are bringing a revolution to inventory control. In "Projector lights radio tags," Technology Research News says that the "Radio Frequency Identity and Geometry (RFIG) system consists of a hand-held projector that shines dynamic images onto physical objects of the user's preference, and radio frequency identification tags augmented with photosensors, which identify objects for the projector." The RFIG lamps are demonstrated right now at the SIGGRAPH 2004 Conference held in Los Angeles.

Assume, however, that the horsepower P, the stress S, the velocity V are known, and the width of the belt, W, is to be found.

http://www.pacificafund.com/blog/2004/05/14.html

I never realized that military hardware comes with "new car smell", but I suppose that plastic outgassing smells the same anywhere.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/08/...

WHITMAN -- Contrary to what the popular bumper sticker says, skateboarding apparently is a crime.

http://www.pacificavc.com/blog/2003/02/14.html#a86

Living up to its usual standards of energy policy, the California PUC is apparently listening to some utilities that want to impose 'exit fees' on businesses that have the cheek to put up PV arrays and generate their own power.

Yo, morons: Imported energy! Global warming! Summer browouts! Clue!!

http://www.mannotincluded.com/about.htm

we operate the only fresh sperm donation service in the world that is open to any woman... single [ or ] lesbian

http://www.floobydust.com/turbo-encabulator/

For a number of years now, work has been proceeding to bring perfection to the crudely conceived idea of a machine that would not only supply inverse reactive current for use in unilateral phase detractors, but would also be capable of automatically synchronizing cardinal grammeters. Such a machine is the "turbo-encabulator." Basically, the only new principle involved is that instead of power being generated by the relative motion of conductors and fluxes, it is produced by the medial interaction of magneto-reluctance and capacitive directance.

http://make.oreilly.com/

The First Magazine for Technology Projects

Make brings the do-it-yourself mindset to all the technology in your life. Make is loaded with exciting projects that help you make the most of your technology at home and away from home. This is a magazine that celebrates your right to tweak, hack, and bend any technology to your own will.

http://accordionguy.blogware.com/blog/_archives/20...

• You're a crack-smoking child abandoning mother of two
• you claim to have proven P = NP

http://www.troutworks.com/Timlog/timlog.php?y=2002...

http://www.troutworks.com/Timlog/timlog.php?y=2003...

A friend of mine who reads a lot of Buddhist texts told me of his favorite metaphor for anger. "Holding onto anger is like holding onto a burning-hot rock", he said. "You can hold it and keep it, but you know that if you do that it's actually hurting you. It's not just painful to hold it, it's actually doing you harm to hold it. So you have to open up your hand, and throw it away. You just throw the anger away."

I said "Um, OK, I think I follow you. But if you do that, then ... how are you going to get your revenge?"

http://www.fantasticmetropolis.com/show.html?rw,50...

Fifty Fantasy & Science Fiction Works That Socialists Should Read

By China Mieville

http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2004/07/30...

PARIS (Reuters) - An Electricite de France economist is in trouble with her employer after writing a tongue-in-cheek book about laziness in the French workplace. ADVERTISEMENT

An EDF spokeswoman said Corrine Maier, author of "Bonjour Paresse" (Hello Laziness), would face a disciplinary hearing at EDF on Aug. 17, but declined to give more details.

A source close to the issue said EDF accused Maier of not respecting company rules and sowing discontent among her colleagues by using pejorative descriptions in her book for low-ranking staff in companies.

The book gives examples of how to take advantage of the system by doing as little work as possible and describes how the most ineffective people are promoted to senior jobs where they can do the least damage.

Maier was not immediately available for comment.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/30/arts/design/30KI...

The much-celebrated Lee Bontecou retrospective has finally arrived at the Museum of Modern Art in Queens at the end of its lengthy tour. It has been a victory lap for this nearly forgotten artist whose works, many of them unseen until now, have gone through some dizzying changes over the years. I suspect the exhibition will seem a revelation to many people.

The show's back story has become familiar by now. A star on the clamorous New York art scene of the 1960's, the only woman in Leo Castelli's famed stable, Ms. Bontecou made hulking, ferocious wall reliefs with yawning black cavities. She used Army surplus materials, twisted bits of bristly copper wire and weathered canvas strips of discarded conveyor belts from a laundry below her decrepit studio on the Lower East Side. At the Modern, these early reliefs pack a special wallop, thrusting out from the walls, a battery of loaded weapons threatening to go off.

They evolved into more elegant, billowing wall sculptures, partly translucent, almost like stained glass, rounded, sometimes backlighted and subtly colored, allusive but still abstract. They were lyrical and slightly humorous.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11...

When you have a teenager on the rampage, who are you going to turn to? In America, parents send their troubled offspring to Jamaica's Tranquility Bay - a 'behaviour-modification centre' which charges $40,000 a year to 'cure' them. Decca Aitkenhead, the first journalist to gain access to the centre in five years, wonders if there isn't too high a price to pay

http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/fmsopubs/issues/w...

A Weapon For All Seasons: The Old But Effective RPG-7 Promises to Haunt the Battlefields of Tomorrow

by Mr. Lester W. Grau

Foreign Military Studies Office, Fort Leavenworth, KS.

http://technoptimist.blogspot.com/2002_06_23_techn...

Left Wing Tactical Difficulties in the US

I've noted a particular tactical problem that Lefties in the US face that they have not generally faced in other countries.

I was reminded of this difficulty by an exchange which occurred on Wednesday night's The Buzz on WABC radio in NYC. Hosts Malzberg and Bey were arguing about The Pledge case when Bey attempted to pull a switch on right-wing "love it or leave it" rhetoric by suggesting that conservatives who can't accept separation of church and state should be shipped out . Malzberg said, "go ahead and try." [Quotes approximate from memory.]

I feel confident that Malzberg was commenting on the tactical problem faced by liberals who attempt to oppress conservatives in America -- the balance of arms.

The fact is that conservatives (and libertarians) are much more heavily armed than lefties (and even more heavily armed than left-wing radical groups) in the US. Though half the homes in America have firearms, 10% of the population owns over half of America's privately-owned firearms. And what do you suppose the ideology off that 10% is?

http://technoptimist.blogspot.com/2002_05_26_techn...

Don't Nuke Mecca

As tempting as it might seem to nuke Mecca if a weapon of mass destruction is used in the US by Islamic radicals, there are disadvantages...

Here's a better suggestion -- build a cathedral in Mecca...

Several precendents would allow us to invade Saudi Arabia, confiscate a small chunk of suburban desert outside Mecca and build a a fortress/cathedral there...

The benefit of this construction is that we can build it without harming any innocent people and all the world's Islamic radicals would be compelled to leave the rest of us alone while they attacked it. Their faith would hardly allow them to bother with building demolition in New York as long as the holiest sites of Islam were being profaned by the (hourly) celebration of the Eucharist...

To maximise the effectiveness of the attack, the church would have to be Catholic (English, Greek, or Roman). Those denomination's sacerdotal magic (featuring the actual presence of Christ) is much stronger than that of other Christian groups. Shouting Baptists just don't make it for this application...

http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/geek005.html

http://www.islamonline.net/english/Science/2000/5/...

...Protecting the head is very important from a health perspective. Results of medical tests show that40 -60% of body heat is lost through the head, so persons wearing head coverings during cold months are protected about fifty-percent more than those who do not...

In the traditional Islamic medical texts of Al-Jawziyya, we can find numerous references to the "four elements" of fire, water, air, and earth, and how these affect the body in adverse ways. In particular, we are advised to stay away from drafts and to protect our heads in wind, breezes, drafts, and cold weather. All outdoor workers should wear some sort of head covering for this reason...

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTI...

Michael Pelletier was browsing a Manchester, N.H., Barnes & Noble with his wife March 27 when a police officer, assisted by a colleague, suddenly grabbed him by the right shoulder and his holster and pushed him toward the corner of a bookcase, says Gunowners of America.

Pelletier was carrying a pistol openly at the small of his back, which became apparent after he took off his jacket.

The officers then disarmed Pelletier and escorted him out of the store. Background checks revealed no record, but officers and detectives issued a barrage of questions about why he carries a gun and what kind of training he had, the gun group said.

Pelletier received back his firearm then reloaded it and put it on his belt, under his shirt. He then went back to the store to complete his purchases.

The group said the police were responding to an anonymous complaint from someone "alarmed by the sight of a private citizen possessing a gun."...

The police... claimed it was reasonable for someone to feel alarmed and threatened...

The police department has offered no explanation for the actions of the officers...

"We believe the reason for Mr. Pelletier's complaint being classified as an internal investigation is to allow the police to keep the 911 call and other pertinent information secret from Mr. Pelletier's attorney," the group says...

http://www.ashbrook.org/publicat/oped/alt/04/creed...

We believe in the United Nations, and Kofi Annan, the maker of international legitimacy.

We believe that the UN inspections worked.

We believe that SCUD missiles fired at U.S. troops minutes after the war began don\u2019t change anything;

We believe that 3 liters of sarin gas used against U.S. troops doesn\u2019t change anything;

We believe that finding evidence of mustard gas doesn\u2019t change anything.

We believe that the war in Iraq conducted by a Republican president was unjustified because it lacked UN approval;

We believe that the "military action" in Kosovo conducted by a Democratic president was justified without UN approval.

We believe that the Iraq war was unilateral.

We believe that the participation of Albania, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Estonia, Georgia, Honduras, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Thailand, United Kingdom, and Ukraine does not change the fact that the war was unilateral;

We believe that multilateralism can only be achieved with the participation of France and Germany;

We believe in multilateralism.

...

http://www.local6.com/news/3033064/detail.html

NEW YORK -- Two gay lovers -- a man in a black dress and a boy in only a pair of shorts -- protested their families' lack of understanding for their relationship by climbing a Central Park tree on Thursday, having sex in front of the crowd that gathered and refusing to come down for hours.

http://www.worth1000.com/view.asp?entry=131524&dis...;

From: Scott Munsey

So, Travis, you have devolved into being obnoxious not simply based on wacky but academic-sounding libertarian tomes, but to being obnoxious based just on pure attitude without any attempted connection to reality - just like your puppet-master, Karl Rove.

...

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/224/region/Cuts_to...

Cuts to health programs could create backlog of HIV patients

Prostitution, multiple sex partners, anal sex, and IV drug use could create backlog of HIV patients

I can't figure out what you want from this gratuitous bit of nastiness. Are we to be amused? Irked? Grateful? Please send instructions and and also explain the Arlington relevance of the above.

I can't figure out what you want from this gratuitous bit of nastiness. Are we to be amused?

Yes.

Irked?

If you wish.

Grateful?

Yes. *Deeply*.

Please send instructions and and also explain the Arlington relevance of the above.

I had continued an ongoing thread, in the expectation that the people of Arlington, and specifically Rich Wenger, possessed senses of humor.

My apologies for my incorrect assumptions.

By the way, when David gets back from vacation, and you hand the list-king-crown back to him, give him my regards.

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/brucebartlett/p...

Europeans are frustrated. They have been behind the United States economically for years and thought this was due to lack of economic integration. So they created the European Union, with a common currency and virtually free mobility of goods, capital and labor throughout the continent. Yet Europe continues to lag.

A new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the United States with real gross domestic product per person in 2003 of $34,960 (in 1999 dollars). This is well above every European country. The most productive European country, Norway, has a per capita GDP of just $30,882...

In other words, Europeans produce no more per year than Americans did 20 years ago. And they are not catching up...

As a consequence, living standards are much lower in Europe than most Americans imagine... For example, it notes that the average poor family [ in the US ] has 25 percent more living space than the average European...

according to Eurostat, Europeans don't put in much of a workday, either. According to the report, the typical European only does a bit more than five hours of gainful work per day...

The OECD blames the unwillingness of Europeans to work as the principal reason for the lower output per worker and their lower standard of living compared with Americans...

why [ do ] Europeans take so much leisure time [ ? ]... a new study by economist Edward Prescott of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis provides the answer [ : ] Europe's higher taxes explain almost all the difference in labor force participation rates between Europe and here.

http://cafehayek.typepad.com/hayek/2004/08/the_ter...

The implicit criticism is one you hear often about the war on terror: we should just give up, because by fighting terror, we enrage people and enlarge the pool of new recruits to the anti-American cause.

It's an interesting practical concern. Surely if the Hydra grows a new head every time one is removed, then you're simply wasting resources swinging your sword. Better to try some other technique.

But the criticism misses an important point about the distribution of terrorist talent. The criticism assumes that the guy on the bench is just as good as the first stringer. But I assume terrorism is like anything else - some are better at it than others. Getting rid of the best means that the ones who replace the best are not as good.

http://www.alphacool.de/perl/shop.pl?s=ad89ceea8ff...

http://acepilots.com/mt/archives/001141.html

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/224/region/CBS_new...

NEW YORK (AP) "60 Minutes" correspondent Mike Wallace... was placed in handcuffs and taken to a police precinct in a dispute with city parking enforcement inspectors...

Wallace saw two Taxi and Limousine Commission inspectors interviewing his [ limo ] driver, who they said was double-parked outside the restaurant.

The TLC inspectors say... Wallace approached the inspectors and became "overly assertive and disrespectful," interfering with their ability to perform their duties.

http://philip.greenspun.com/materialism/house-desi...

So let's figure out how to build an industrial loft in the suburbs or woods...

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/2004/08/09

The words below are summaries of Theroux's 485-page book, not opinions of the author of this blog (who has only once visited Africa and then only to Egypt).

Black Africans are very comfortable leading a life of subsistence farming and frequent casual sex with lots of different partners starting at about age 10. They are basically quite happy and unmotivated to change this lifestyle, which makes sense because, at least in the villages, it is a great lifestyle (especially for the men, who get to spend all day every day drinking beer with their buddies while women work in the fields). Black African governments, however, are not happy watching their subjects dig potatoes in between bouts of lovemaking. This is not because they have anything against subsistence farming or sex but rather because it is difficult to tax subsistence farmers or 14-year-old working girls.

Black Africans sometimes express confusion as to how others achieve economic prosperity, particularly the Indians who operate most of the continent's small shops. One boatman on the Zambezi relates that his people believe that "Indians [kill young African girls] and cut out their hearts. Using the fresh hearts of these African virgins as bait on large hooks, they were able to catch certain Zambezi fish that were stuffed full of diamonds." A girl in South Africa notes "They say Indians never sleep. They just stay awake, doing business night and day. That's why they are rich."

Africans are basically incompetent at anything other than having a good time. They can't drive. They can't prepare a vehicle for a journey properly or change a tire. They can't grow food on a large scale. The smarter Africans sometimes are able to dupe a white person into making something work and then they steal it. This has been refined to an art in Zimbabwe where the blacks got the whites to set up farms that they could subsequently take over under land reform. Sometimes a farmer would go through two cycles of buying land, improving it, and watching it get stolen by "war veterans" before giving up. The whites eventually got wise, however, and moved their operations across the river to Zambia. The blacks who took over the white farms are unable to do anything other than have sex and farm enough for subsistence. To avert famine the government buys much of its food now from their former white citizens now living across the border in Zambia. This generalized incompetence doesn't keep villagers from having a good time but city life is a challenge because the colonialists who built the roads, sewers, etc. packed up and went home. Consequently Theroux finds the urban and infrastructure portions of Africa in every way and in every country worse than it was 40 years ago when he lived there.

Foreign aid requires the direct involvement of whites and/or Asians on the ground at every level. You can't give aid to African officials because they will steal the money. You can't give food to African employees in local villages because they will sell it. You can't give food to African parents to feed their hungry children because children have almost zero value in Africa and the parents will eat it themselves. So you need (mostly) Europeans at every level of the distribution chain right down to the troughs at which the hungry kids will eat.

Foreign aid workers are the most loathsome people on the continent. They roar around in fancy new air-conditioned SUVs and won't give rides to travelers such as Theroux. They aren't good for conversations in bars, either. Basically the only thing that foreign aid workers are good for is sucking the initiative out of the Africans themselves. But they are necessary because no Africans are willing to do the job. Any African who gets enough training to, say, become a medical doctor, either emigrates to a rich country or refuses to leave the largest cities. The only people who are willing to work in clinics in villages are white. Theroux's favorite stories are when earnest white Christians work for years sheltering and feeding street kids and then get set up and robbed by those very same kids...

Subject: When the feces impacts the impeller

It may amuse you to know that _feces_ is the plural of _fex_.

http://technicalvideorental.com

http://www.pifflesquit.com/motorizedcouch/build.ht...

From the dawn of time, women have asked men to move furniture.

This is one man's modern response to this age-old request.

...I settled on West Coast Fiero to do the welding for me. I told them, "I want to build a motorized couch." They said, "You came to the right place."...

http://agoraphilia.blogspot.com/2004_08_01_agoraph...

...What has surfing got to do with property rights? A lot. Although few of them admit or even realize it, surfers obsess about defining, getting, defending, and enjoying - especially enjoying! - property rights in waves. Specifically, surfers deal in rights to the area on a wave face capable of providing an enjoyable ride.

How do the rules of surfing embody a respect for property rights? First and most importantly, they uphold the right to homestead wave faces... Someone who repeatedly wastes waves, however, may soon draw blame for (in effect) violating the second Lockean proviso that no one take more property from the commons than they can use without letting it go to waste. (See the Second Treatise, section 31.)...

Travis,

You protest too much. If you have a valid issue that you wish to discuss intelligently with me, take it off-list and I will be more than happy to address it with you.

Your beef with me is obviously personal and this constant re-iterating depicts you in the same light you are trying so eagerly to portray me. I don't know you, have not, do not correspond with you privately, except for once, where you berated my email, and I referred to you as a "Zen-master," and Einstein." The rest of this stuff is garbage. I don't even write the way these emails are written and have even apologized to the moderator and to another individual whom I made an on list off-color referral to. It seems odd that I have singled YOU out and then gave you permission to re-print scathing emails I allegedly wrote to you on your website, doesn't it? According to what I've read, I seem to write to you a lot. Interestingly, I don't write to anyone else on the list as often and in such a vulgar tone as I allegedly seem to write to you. You like to stir conflict, well congrats you did. Nobody's life has changed for the better or worse.

Again, if you have issues, conflicts, or allegations you wish to discuss with me, please take it off-list and I will be more than happy to discuss this with you. Otherwise, I consider the subject closed.

Thank you

If you have a valid issue that you wish to discuss intelligently with me, take it off-list and I will be more than happy to address it with you.

Your conversation to me off list has so far included nothing but insults and genital references. I have no desire to discuss anything off list with you.

Your beef with me is obviously personal

Quite right.

You are a person who has seen fit to call me names, and then, once your behavior was demonstrated to the world, you began indulging in untruths and whispering campaigns.

My beef with you is *indeed* personal.

and this constant re-iterating depicts you in the same light you are trying so eagerly to portray me.

No, I don't think so.

You've been a notable uniting force on the list: even folks who I entirely disagree with have been sending me mail off list saying that they don't believe your assertions, and that even if I'm a "libertarian intent on destroying the Arlington public schools", I still don't deserve to be slandered and lied about.

Many of these folks have also been forwarding me off-list messages that you've sent to them, so I've got a very good idea of your modus operandi.

If there's one thing I'm sure about in this little contretemps you've created, it's that you and I are appearing in entirely distinct lights: both my friends *and* my political "enemies" agree on that.

I don't know you, have not, do not correspond with you privately, except for once, where you berated my email, and I referred to you as a "Zen-master," and Einstein." The rest of this stuff is garbage.

Yrena, this is a bald-faced lie, and you are a serial liar. I have your messages archived, including (as I've said before) routing headers, MIME segment fields, HTML appendices, characteristic misspellings and odd linguistic constructions.

I additionally have received a letter from a list member to whom you apparently bragged, face to face, that you had sent the "small penis" email to me.

This person said that he/she would be more than willing to be a friendly witness in any court case.

I don't even write the way these emails are written

Yes, you do.

In your whispering campaign, I've been BCC-ed by several of the folks you contacted, as they wrote back to you, where they cast grave doubt on your assertion that the emails I quote are not in your style. To a person, these folks who have seen fit to BCC me have argued to you that the emails on my site are exactly in your writing style.

It seems odd that I have singled YOU out and then gave you permission to re-print scathing emails I allegedly wrote to you on your website, doesn't it?

Yes, your behavior does strike me as very odd...so odd that I've wondered from time to time if it is symptomatic - not of poor character - but instead of actual mental illness.

Again, if you have issues, conflicts, or allegations you wish to discuss with me, please take it off-list and I will be more than happy to discuss this with you.

There's nothing to discuss.

The record is clear: you are vulgar, unsubtle, and a liar.

If you think that I'm unfairly defaming your character, please sue me. I will show up in court, subpoena witnesses, produce your emails to me, and invite computer forensics folks to examine my computer and that of my ISP to confirm that the messages were sent from you.

You're continued protests are fooling no one.

If you want to get out of the reputation hole you've dug for yourself, own up to your personal attacks, apologize, and move on with your life.

Travis, I di [sic] not write the alleged inflammaitory [sic] discourse [sic] you claim. Also, I do not appreciate you elicting Lenne [sic] FItzgerald [sic] to try and [sic] debunk and infalme [sic] me.

My legal colleagues and I would welcome any recourse [sic] you may have.

Obviously, you know how to contact me and I welcome your attorney contacting me.

Disclaimer: This email is for private use only. It may NOT be reproduced without the expressed permission of it's author (s).

Travis, I am willing to accept a public "List Apology," with a promise not to defame me pub;licly in the future ( in addition to removing these awful alleged emails from your website, OR have your legal counsel contact me personally.

I stand on record.

...There's such a thing as "rational ignorance". There's been some really interesting (for those interested in economics) recent work on optimizing strategies versus "satisficing" (to steal a word from Howard Rheingold) strategies (e.g.: "how do I find the best mattress for my dollar?", versus "how do I find a reasonably good mattress for my dollar?"). At a meta-level, it turns out that latter approach is much better: the time spent moving from a decision that is 95% as good as possible to one that is 100% as good as possible is time that could be better spent doing something else...

Travis, I've been watching this go back and forth and it's clear you're still inciting to riot, whether you really believe in what you're saying or not :-) Let me boil it down though: If you have the time to write the sanctimonious, pseudo-intellectual bs you've posted in the last day, you sure as hell have time to stand in line, whether it's Starbucks or a donor drive. Appalling, truly.

I always enjoy an intellectual discussion about interesting ideas.

However, they don't usually include terms like

• "sanctimonious"
• "pseudo-intellectual"
• "bs"
• "appalling"

If your idea of a debate is to ignore what I've written and instead indulge in name calling, you might as well leave off the smiley face.

Or, better yet, leave off the entire message.

You're not hurting my feelings; you're just hurting your own reputation.

I didn't figure to get much else in reply. When you actually care to conduct a debate, vs. the silly stuff that you write, let me know. Of course I ignored it; you didn't say anything. As for my reputation it's fine, as I suspect I'm known for being direct and you're known for ....?

You say that you didn't figure to get much else in reply. Rightly so! What would you think you'd get after throwing personal insults at someone?

Let's recap the chronology:

1. I write an email with ideas ("rational ignorance", etc.) in it
2. you call me "sanctimonious" and "pseudo-intellectual"
3. I write back that you're just name-calling
4. you write "I didn't figure to get much else in reply".

You say that when I want a real debate I should write to you. In what way was I not conducting a debate?

You say that I "didn't say anything". I said several things. You apparently didn't understand them, or chose not to.

As for your reputation: believe what you like. So far it looks like I'm known for debating ideas, and you're known for name-calling.

The symbolism of standing in line "for" something not withstanding, what's the opportunity cost? Given the choice between giving blood once, then standing in a separate line for symbolic reasons, and giving-blood-and-being-tested once, and then spending time doing something else useful (playing with one's kids, reading a book, etc.), I'd choose the second option.

Wow. I'm in awe that you guys make every decision in such a carefully considered manner, and seemingly turn everything into a cost-benefit-analysis.

I don't make every decision that way.

There's such a thing as "rational ignorance". There's been some really interesting (for those interested in economics) recent work on optimizing strategies versus "satisficing" (to steal a word from Howard Rheingold) strategies (e.g.: "how do I find the best mattress for my dollar?", versus "how do I find a reasonably good mattress for my dollar?"). At a meta-level, it turns out that latter approach is much better: the time spent moving from a decision that is 95% as good as possible to one that is 100% as good as possible is time that could be better spent doing something else.

So, in that spirit: I don't have a "carefully considered manner" for all decision making, just for *some* decision making...however, one thing that I carefully think about is which things I should carefully think about. ;)

...when it's clear outside, you can see for at least three meta levels...

it's not that I lack emotions; I just lack *human* emotions.

I have to confess that Dan [ Geer ] and Travis have a certain effect on me by the way they view the world in terms of cost benefit analysis. It never fails to provoke me, especially the closer it gets to an area like health care, which I consider to be a basic human right.

pharmaceutical companies prosper with obscene profits

...The...corrupted corporate system of health care in the US...

Surfing [ a link in your blog, ] I see the author of the web page [ on constructing a yurt ] [ is ] Monica Cellio... And I immediately realised I know her. I went to college with her. One of those SCA types.

Told dad about your escapade today. He said, "good for him!" I guess only mothers worry about such things... Be good and try not to beat anyone up for awhile. I like small claims suits better. ha, ha.

http://gocalifornia.about.com/cs/sanfrancisco/a/gg...

One of the most interesting Golden Gate Bridge facts is that only eleven workers died during construction, a new safety record for the time. In the 1930s, bridge builders expected 1 fatality per $1 million in construction costs, and builders expected 35 people to die while building the Golden Gate Bridge.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/08/movies/08EDEL.ht...

"The Big Lebowski,"...has amassed an obsessive following on cable and video and by word of mouth... It has a rolling national convention, ... For two days, Lebowski fans (referred to as Achievers) will dress up as their favorite character...

The Coens turned down requests to be interviewed about the cult of "The Big Lebowski," which is frankly infuriating: I did not watch my buddies die facedown in the muck to be blown off by too-cool, insular, press-shunning elitists....

"Had I been reading to children and had my top aide whispered in my ear, 'America is under attack,' I would have told those kids very politely and nicely that the president of the United States had something that he needed to attend to -- and I would have attended to it."

Kerry: "...And as I came in [to a meeting in Sen. Daschle's office], Barbara Boxer and Harry Reid were standing there, and we watched the second plane come in to the building. And we shortly thereafter sat down at the table and then we just realized nobody could think, and then boom, right behind us, we saw the cloud of explosion at the Pentagon..." (emphasis added).

It should be noted that the second plane hit the World Trade Center at 9:03 a.m., and the plane hit the Pentagon at 9:43 a.m. By Kerry's own words, he and his fellow senators sat there for forty minutes, realizing "nobody could think."

In other words: Sen. Kerry, who criticized President Bush for not rushing out of the Florida classroom for seven minutes, sat paralyzed with his colleagues for a full forty minutes. He is hardly in a position to criticize President Bush for "inaction."

http://cbftw.blogspot.com/2004/08/men-in-black.htm...

...Right at my fucking head and all I saw was the fire from his muzzle flash leaving the end of his barrel as he was shooting at me. I heard and felt the bullets whiz literally inches from my head, hitting all around my hatch and 50 cal mount making a "Ping" "Ping" "Ping" sound. I ducked the fucked down in the hatch. I yelled "We're taking fire! 3 O'clock!!! Turned the gun around towards where the guy was and fired a burst. I fired a burst right over our back air guard hatch...

There was reports of a buncha people, wearing all black armed with AK's hanging out there. Our job was to locate and kill them. We were driving there on that main street, when all of the sudden all hell came down all around on us, all these guys wearing all black (Black pants, and a black t-shirts tucked in), a couple dozen on each side of the street, on rooftops, alleys, edge of buildings, out of windows, everywhere just came out of fucking nowhere and started firing RPG's and AK47's at us. I freaked the fuck out and ducked down in the hatch. I yelled "WE GOT FUCKIN HAJI'S ALL OVER THE FUCKIN PLACE!!! THERE ALL OVER GOD DAMNIT!!!"...

I kind of lost it and I was yelling and screaming all sorts of things. (mostly cuss words) I fired the .50 cal over the place, shooting everything. My driver was helping me out and pointing out targets to me over the radio. He helped me a lot that day. They were all over shooting at us. My PLT was stuck right smack dab in the middle of the ambush and we were in the kill zone. We shot our way out of it and drove right through the ambush. The street we were driving down to escape, had 3 to 4 story high buildings all along each side, as we were driving away all you could see were 100's and 100's of bullets impacting all over these buildings....

http://cbftw.blogspot.com/2004/08/al-qaeda.html

I cleaned the .50 Cal inside and out. I discovered the remains of a smashed up impacted 7.62 bullet that had my name on it by my hatch. I put that in my pocket. If I ever have kids, and I get all old and have grand kids, I could show them the bullet that Al Qaeda tried to kill me with. Have them bring that in for show and tell at school.

http://bamber.blogspot.com/2004_08_01_bamber_archi...

People tell me, "So, the khepri symbolize rebirth ?" and I'm like, "no - people with beetle heads: cool!"

http://www.penny-arcade.com/news.php3?date=2004-08...

One of my big problems is that I will often say things that I don't really mean, simply because I can state whatever it is with precision. This tends to create a lot of problems for me socially, but at the same time creating a sentence with an undeniably clear purpose - regardless of the purpose itself - produces in me an elation which I find difficult to describe. I could try to do it now, and I bet it would feel really good, but I actually have a point I'm trying to get across.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2104802/

When my beagle, Sasha, was convalescing from her ligament-severing encounter with a car, I dreaded hearing the defeated sound of her smashing her head-encasing plastic collar on the stairs each day. She had to wear the "Elizabethan collar" - the hard, clear plastic cone that isolates an animal's face from its body - to keep from chewing off her splint. But these cones cut down on smell and peripheral vision and generally drive pets crazy.

Voila - the Soft-E-Collar, which will turn your pet from Queen Elizabeth I into Bozo the Clown.

Five years ago, Schmid's collie, Sweet Pea, wouldn't stop licking a hot spot on her hip and had to wear the traditional collar. Sweet Pea became deeply depressed because of looking like Pixar's desk-lamp mascot, so Schmid came up with something better, a wide, cloth ring worn around the neck that protects the wound, but doesn't infuriate the pet. Her husband says they've sold 100,000 Soft-E-Collars

http://www.claytoncramer.com/weblog/2004_08_01_arc...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0804/p15s02-stss.htm...

"Outer space is a province of all mankind," says Sylvia Ospina, a member of the board of directors at the International Institute of Space Law. "There is not, and should not be, any privatization of outer space. It is a common thing that should belong to all."

http://slate.msn.com/id/2104755/

...Here's what few people seem to realize: By weighing in at more than 6,000 pounds, big SUVs are prohibited on thousands of miles of road in California. Cities across the state - including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Pasadena, and Santa Monica - use the 3-ton cutoff for many or nearly all of their residential streets...

But local officials either don't realize they've banned big SUVs, or they're hoping no one will make a stink...

the biggest impediment to enforcing these bans is political will - SUVs are wildly popular, and it will take brave city and state officials to challenge the right of residents to use their own streets...

I need to look up exactly where our back property line is. I've been assuming we do this at Town Hall -- is that right?

The Planning Department can help you at 781-316-3090.

The planning department can show you a piece of paper with some lines on it.

Given that Katharine wants to know *exactly* where the property line is in the real world, not on paper, she needs a surveyor, not the planning department.

All I wrote was that the Planning Department would help her, which is correct. I see no need for you to publicly correct me further. Why do you feel that need?

I don't see why she should contact the planning department. She should contact a surveyor, who will pull the plot plan, and then do a survey.

What exactly do you think she should do? Call the planning department and have them tell her "you need to call a surveyor"?

Or call the planning department, get a copy of the plot plan, then call a surveyor, who will contact the town on his own to get a copy of the plot-plan that he knows is up-to-date?

I didn't "publicly correct you *further*" (emphasis mine). Why do you use "further"? I read your comment, and I made one and only one post on the topic.

The reason I made the post is that you had given incorrect information.

The reason I made it in public is that (a) that's where the original request for information was; (b) that's where you gave incorrect information; (c) therefore anyone who was following the thread had already received incorrect information and should gain the benefit of correct information.

What's made you so prickly today?

You have now [ sic ] answered my question: I asked you why you *felt* you had to correct me further.

Instead, you focused on details, alleging that what I posted was "incorrect." It was incorrect to suggest to a property owner that they can get help about property lines from planners. Indeed, they can.

My question is why you *feel* you have to correct my publicly. Why s [ sic ] that, Travis?

As an example of this, I called the planning department just now and asked

"Hi. I'm an Arlington resident. I want to know exactly where my property line is. Can you help me?".

The woman who answered the phone said - and I quote precisely - "No, you'd have to have that surveyed".

The question "Can you help?"

The answer "No."

Now, perhaps you're going to argue that your advice was correct and useful, because by listening to your advice, a person could waste a phone call, and then find out who they should have called.

This is as silly as having someone ask "I want to get pictures developed; I've been assuming we do this at Town Hall -- is that right?" and you answering "The Planning Department can help you at 781-316-3090". Sure, the person could then call the planning department and find out that - no, the planning department doesn't do that, and the person needs to call a photo lab.

It was incorrect to suggest to a property owner that they can get help about property lines from planners. Indeed, they can.

The question was not "geting help about property lines". Don't try to change the debate. The exact question was

I need to look up exactly where our back property line is. I've been assuming we do this at Town Hall -- is that right?

Your exact answer was

The Planning Department can help you at 781-316-3090.

and this answer was wrong.

With regards to your questions about "feelings": let me ask you: why did you *feel* the need to post incorrect / useless information?

As far as why I felt the need to correct you: I didn't feel the "need" to correct "you": I felt the *desire* to post correct information myself. The fact that you were already first on the scene and has posted useless/incorrect information had little to do with that.

You still have not answered the original question: I asked you why you *felt* you had to correct me further.

You have told me nothing about your feelings involved.

I somehow

(a) don't recall having any particularly feelings when I corrected your mistake, just as I don't recall having any particular feelings when I fed the dogs this morning, and just as I don't recall having any particular feelings when I brushed my teeth.

(b) don't recall deciding that I needed a therapist to tell my feelings to.

So, having answered your question with complete honesty and candor I'm still waiting for you to tell me

(a) why you feel the need to chime in on so many topics on the Arlington list, even when you don't know what you're talking about.

(b) given that the person answering the phones at the Planning department says that the Planning department "can't help", will you now admit that your advice was wrong and/or useless?

(c) what's your fixation with knowing what my feelings were about correcting your incorrect advice? Are you not getting enough respect at work, or something, and now you're lashing out at anyone who doesn't respect you and your incorrect information on the Arl list?

Just so you know: Any e-mail you send to my bsprague1 address is going to my spam folder.

Because you don't "recall" any feelings about making a mountain of today's mole hill doesn't mean you don't have them. Perhaps you need a few more years of reflection about it. Meanwhile, I choose not to read your private e-mails to me.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/04/opinion/04shultz...

http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2004/08/04...

... Michael Hanczyk showed up in court to fight a drunken driving charge...[with ] booze on his breath.

A judge stopped a hearing Tuesday and ordered the 42-year-old Hanczyk to take a field sobriety test...

A breath test indicated that Hanczyk had a blood alcohol content of 0.296 percent,

http://www.reason.com/hitandrun/006343.shtml#00634...

A man named Akin Fernandez assembled his recordings of [ number stations ] transmissions into a four-CD set called The Conet Project... Wilco sampled Conet without Fernandez's permission, and that led -- yes -- to a copyright suit...

A few things you should probably know about Akin Fernandez: ...He believes UFOs are real...there appear to be grooves carved into his clean-shaven head, the origins of which he politely declines to discuss.

( http://www.boingboing.net/2004/08/03/ashcroft_orde... )

http://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/20040809/fu...

I lack entirely the brass of Hilton Kramer, the eminent art critic and co-founder of The New Criterion. At a dinner once, he and Woody Allen were seated next to each other. The actor said, "So, Mr. Kramer, do you find it embarrassing when you encounter people whose work you have slammed?" "No," replied Hilton: "I think they should be embarrassed for having made such lousy art." Later on, Hilton realized that he had once criticized a movie that Allen was in (The Front).

http://www.scifi.com/sfw/current/news.html

Michael Chiklis... will play... The Thing, in the latest comic-book-to-film adaptation, Fantastic Four...

Chiklis, who won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for the role of Vic Mackey on the FX TV series The Shield...

http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2004/08/...

PARIS -- Since at least the 19th century, the French have heard much talk about their decline. Of course, the French have never believed it.

"Pas du tout! (Not at all!)" they might exclaim with a trademark shrug of the shoulders.

But these days, judging by several best-selling books in France and the tone of a self-effacing discourse on national radio and television and in newspapers, the country has begun to again broach the subject of its own decline. The discussion touches on the loss of influence in the spheres of politics, economics, art, film, diplomacy, and even language...

Nicolas Baverez, a Paris lawyer, was a largely unknown classical historian until last year when his first book, a treatise titled "The Decline of France," surprised the publishing industry by becoming a bestseller.

A year later, it is still selling strong in paperback, as are several other books with similar titles like "France in Free Fall" or "French Arrogance."

...

http://www.newyorker.com/shouts/content/?040726sh_...

After Mr. Cheney successfully delivered the epithet... Mr. Leahy...referred to the Vice-President using a term more often heard in taverns and locker rooms...

...

"Oh, it's like that?" Mr. Cheney queried.

"Whut? Whut?" Mr. Leahy shot back.

"Once again," Mr. Cheney replied (quite obviously quoting a lyric from Ice Cube's 1990 album, "AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted"), "it's on."

As a quick-thinking senatorial aide switched on the Senate's public-address system and cued up the infamous "Seven Minutes of Funk" break, Mr. Leahy and Mr. Cheney went head-to-head in what can only be described as a "take no prisoners" freestyle rap battle.

Most of the rhymes kicked therein cannot be quoted in a family publication, but observers gave Mr. Cheney credit for his deceptively laid-back flow. Mr. Leahy was applauded for managing to rhyme the phrases "unethical for certain," "crude oil spurtin'," and "like Halliburton."

Despite the fact that both participants brought their A-game and succeeded in dropping mad scientifics, the bout seemed to end in a draw.

Unfortunately, as other senators (along with assorted aides and support-staff members) were casting their votes to decide the winner, using the admittedly subjective but generally accepted "Make some noise up in here!" protocols, Mr. Cheney and Mr. Leahy took the proceedings to what one aide accurately described as "the next level."

...

"Oh, snap!" Mr. Kennedy recalls thinking at the time. "It's getting kind of hectic up in this piece."

But before either of the aggrieved public servants could bust a potentially injurious move on his rival, cooler heads prevailed: a veteran Capitol Hill security guard pacified the bloodthirsty white men (Mr. Leahy first, then Mr. Cheney) with a shot from a tranquillizer gun...

http://www.info99dogs.com

http://www.sfsite.com/singularity/

s1ngularity: a literary spike in the eye

What do you get if you win?

This time around, we're sending out a shitload of signed and personalized books

http://www.readymademag.com/feature_1_newspin.php

SAFETY FIRST! Do not try this at home without a skilled shop person by your side. We are trying to be honest with you now so you won't come pointing your remaining three fingers at us.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie;=UTF-8&q;=%22d...