(Lovely photo of a hike in the Peak District in the UK by tricky (sovietuk).)
It's been one of those mornings where nothing has gone right. But, while the server was down, I did get in a walk and some healthy breakfast, so I suppose it's not all bad today. We've been trying to be healthier at our house the last few weeks — and I feel all the better for it.
This is going to be an abbreviated post, to get you all something fresh on the page. But I'm wondering what you have been doing for yourself lately to make your world a bit better. Healthier food? Yep. Little more exercise? Yep. Trying to work in a bit more play time with The Peanut? Yep. A little more relaxation time with a good book or some great music? Yep.
At the moment, life is good here at my house. How are things at yours? Pull up a chair…
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So glad you’re back!
Good morning, Christy!
I thought you were lost in the toobz.
zed
moderators!
air cards!
am I still allowed to pull up a chair? quietly? in the corner?
Oh no! It’s teh MONOfiredoglake! Drained!
Speaking of being drained — did anyone catch this newzie cheezie bit about Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Rutgers, NSF (and they who must be obeyed) hard at work on a plan to scrap the Internets and start from scratch?
Looks like they’ve gotten things off to a smashing start at FDL.
Morning leinie. We’ve been trying to troubleshoot this since before 7 am this morning. SIGH Glad we are back, too. :)
missed the zed.
I thought you were lost in the toobz also.
Obviously that late-night therapod is stomping around and crushing the tubes.
Ok just started reading a new book on gender & self definition-so far its great-its cALLED What Becomes You-highly recommend it
ReneND, I grew up in ND. Went door to door for Kent Conrad when he first ran for the Senate.
Gonna savor my coffee, then dig in my garden. Now that my panic over my inability to launch the Lake has subsided. Addictions can be a bitch!
Can’t believe I got the zed….it’s my first!
I was lonesome.
But now I’m happy!
Pat at 5 — Of course you are. Why would you think you weren’t? And you can make as much noise as you like, so long as you don’t break my best teapot. *G*
leinie @ 10
Congrats on the zed. So where are you now? There are a few of us hanging around here. Fargo mostly.
We’ve been having server upgrades done, and there was a hiccup somewhere. Really sorry about that, gang.
mornin’ all — while waitin’
for the lake to reappear,
all-brigadoon-like, outta’
the mists, n-junk. . .
i uploaded an easy-view image
of the federalist society spread-
sheet monica goodling received
on february 12, 2007, for your
enjoyment — chrunchy-document
goodness. . .
to be clear — it is gonzo’s lie that matters.
that is all.
. . .vanishes back into the mists. . .
Glad you are back. Saturday morning is jus’ mnot the same without pulling up a chair!
Good morning Redd, gang. Matt Stoller/MyDD has a nice segment on an interview by Nancy Pelosi.
ReneND @13:
I’m in Idaho now. The reddest of the red states.
Grew up in Grand Forks. Was actually the campaign manager for a guy running for the State house of reps when I was in college. We lost to a local high powered lawyer’s son who’d been a Calvin Klein model. It was all name recognition.
Used to drive to Fargo to go to the Fargo Theater. I loved that theater.
time to go work-out at the club,
in the land of self-improvement.
Improvement, self styled, by re reading Vonnegut today. Listening to Dylan circa 1965, and remembering McGovern should have unseated Nixon.
After 2 years of planning and procrastination, my contractor is finally going to start renovations on our house (new doors and windows and refurbishing 2.5 bathrooms). So I am looking forward with great glee to the prospect of having my house torn up, strange guys tromping through it, and camping out in plaster dust for the next few months.
The good part of that is that it will encourage us to get out of the house more.
Life is great here in Savannah, with the second GORGEOUS day in a row for our out-of-town guest. My asparagus roots are waking up and sending up stalks and fronds, the lettuce is thriving, and I have blossoms on my tomatoes and green beans. Put flowers into the beds in the back yesterday. Puttering in the garden makes me feel better.
And, to make life even more perfect, FDL is back! Can’t even begin to say how I’ve missed it!
Exercise, healthy food, relaxing activity?
I’m living on coffee usually in my bathrobe and ruining my eyesight. I have a family – someplace and a job that thankfully hasn’t fired me yet. All this personal neglect because I have just recently become aware of what is going on in this country!
I don’t know where I was or what I was doing but I’m here now and boy am I pissed.
Good mornin’ Christy and Firepups!
So glad you’re back…
(and this morning gabbler went away..)
Saw this cool website this morning. “In their own words.”
http://www.expertvoter.org/
Saturday morning without FDL makes me very anxious. Must. Have. More. Coffee. Better now, though.
Kurt Vonnegut’s death caused me to unearth his last book, “A Man Without a Country.” Vintage Vonnegut with latter days of Vonnegut overtones. Fearlessly outspoken. Very accessible read. Fuels anger, though. But I do think that’s what’s called for in these times. Visible, vocal, persistent. Okay. That and impeachment.
My Mom Said I Could
How About a Little Morning Humor with that Coffee!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VP4z2UDkIA
That’s right, fellow Firepups – During the Libby Trial My Mom Said I Could support the Live-blogging, brilliant commentary and cybercommunity at Firedoglake with a monthly PayPal transaction of $25.07 for the rest of the year!
I’ve just sent in my April contribution and it feels great! I come to the Lake every day I’m on the web, and sometimes even enjoy a weekend at the Lake. This is a classy place and a model for healthy, progressive cyber-movements everywhere.
Where else can you get such a great line-up of truly involved citizens like Jane, Pach, Marcy, Christy!, T-Rex, Phoenix Woman, Eli, eRiposte and more?
Keep the Lake Great! Please Donate Today!
A little bit of panic without the lake.
Self Improvement steps: changed diet by adding a LOT more fresh fruit. Also watching more old movies to keep the BP down rather than talking head idiots on the picture box.
Have you had a good archive today?
Jack
Feh. I’m in a foul mood, I’m afraid. I had some stuff I was supposed to be doing with friends, so I didn’t make plans for any of the Step It Up events, or to go canvassing, and then the other plans fell through. And I’m stressed about the canvassing because I haven’t been getting much done, and while I like doing it okay, I don’t really like being in charge of organizing it.
And I’ve been putting on weight, because I’ve been busy at work, so I’ve been eating too much junk food and not taking my afternoon walks.
‘Morning’, Christy! What’s shakin’?
Christy Hardin Smith @ 15
Bad server! Bad, bad, bad server! No more email for you!
Harry Reid’s response to the Prez’ Saturday radio address.
Leinie #18
The theatre has been refurbished. They did a wonderful job on it.
“Oh no! It’s teh MONOfiredoglake! Drained!”
mel, you must be from CA, non?
Welcome back, Lake.
Christy Hardin Smith @
15
Anticipating the loads once the live blogging starts of Scooter’s sentencing hearing?
Two weeks ago I started my spring “get back in shape” phase. The weather was in the mid 70s and dry so I brought my bike to work and did two mid-day rides. Since then it’s either been non-stop rain or winds at 30MPH and it’s supposed to continue for the next ten days or so. What a drag.
Ah, here you are…Glad you explained the hiccup, CHS, I’m always afraid of a hack on this fine blog.
Spring has really sprung in L.A. Everything is blooming in our back & side gardens. Going to a friend’s wedding later in lovely old Santa Inez Mission chapel upstate near Solvang. Speaking of Healthy Eats- reception catering will have emphasis on vegan fare :)
OhKayNow @ 21
I remember standing at the polls in ‘72 trying to get folks to vote “Straight Democratic” (this was in Kentucky). Unfortunately, most folks split their votes as we elected a new Dem senator (Dee Huddleston) but the Trickster took the pres vote. We did show he had short coattails though. The Republic candidate for Senate was former Gov. Louie B. Nunn (49 states have govs, we have Nunn). Nunn was one of the few folks the trickster left Washington to campaign for. Nunn lost the senate race by about same percent as McGovern did in the state.
*waves to leinie!*
I’m spending today (while there’s a bit of sun) trying to clean up the front lawn. *sigh* The town’s putting in new sewer lines on my street. I have to park half a mile away, my front lawn is littered with debris…and they destroyed my sidewalk “by accident”. (Didn’t realize they were supposed to be digging up the other side!)
Two more months of this, or so they claim….
Booyah! Chair fixed! Been out potting up some spinach plants I started from seed while waiting for life at the Lake to start flowing.
Melfeasance @ 8.21 -
Saw the article you mentioned; talk about a tidbit to put a choke hold on your heart. :-(
So glad you’re back, CHS! I just started reading She Got up Off the Couch, the wonderful sequel to A Girl Named Zippy
My “get back in shape phase” consists of unpacking all the wretched boxes I packed just a few weeks ago and lamenting all the crap we dragged with us to the new house, coupled with jumping for joy at the prospect of buying some new furniture and jogging up and down two stories worth of stairs just as my knees are giving out. *g*
Tomorrow morning we are going to the restaurant that has the bestest blueberry pancakes in the entire universe.
Scarecrow @ 34
“Next week, Democratic leaders will bring the concerns of the American people to the White House and ask the President to work with them to produce legislation that offers what the majority of Americans, bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress, military experts and the Iraq Study Group have demanded: a change of course in Iraq.”
Huh? I thought Pelosi and Reid had decided to
blow offdecline the pres’s “invitation” to come talk.Christie,
I have been wondering about the state purchasing agent in Wisconsin, Georgia Thompson, who was wrongfully prosecuted. Do you have any information on how that went so far as a conviction? Mustn’t the judge have been part of the scheme? How could a jury convict on such an incoherent case?
Has anyone heard anything?
Oh, and self-improvement, decompression… mailing off those taxes & Saturday morning library knitting circle. It’s amateur hour but fun.
life is also great here in the catskills.
stayed up past my bedtime laste nite reading online & was inspired by how good life feels this morning to write some poetry.
hope the likeside loungers enjoy – writing poetry is something i have only done 2-3 times in 54 years.
ode to fridays
friday doc dumps
always stupid admin move
savvy liberals & moderates get much happiness
2&1/2 days to
dive, connect dots
then post on net
congressional staffers
msm
have whole weekend to digest connected dots
cause supeonas & front page stories
following week
more happiness for libs & mods
cherry blossoms bloom
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY, LIFE IS GOOD!
Some West Wing DVDs from Netflix, got here, my custom amp plates (with my name on ‘em) are on the way from the engraver, my re-coned Fender Blue Alnico speakers are on the way from Orange County Speaker, I have enough to pay my tax bill, DON FUCKING IMUS GOT FIRED BY BOTH HIS EMPLOYERS…
Now if we could only get all the repukes and all the Lieberman supporters (most of the US Senate) out of office…
Wish I had more days like this.
Doonesbury’s continued story of the neocon reporter sent to Vermont to find out why those traitors voted for impeachment. It’s been a hilarious series, perfectly illustrating the different world views. The scene opens in the Town Hall, where they all met and voted.
Oh Honey I’m home !
Mornin’ Christy and Firedogs
just this week adjusted my work schedule to include another day off – to sit on the porch to watch the spring migrants and read
Scarecrow @ 34
Bush is so pathetic, he’s downright hilarious. Not only do the extended tours and the quest for a “war czar” show how badly these buffoons have lost control of a war they never could have won and never should have started, Bush’s administration is chin-deep in an equally poorly-chosen fight with both houses of Congress over its refusal to treat subpoenas as lawfully given orders rather than optional requests. And all he has to offer in his address today is a rerun of the last two weeks’ whining over Congress doing its job and regulating the way he can spend money. If Bush is trying for lame-duck irrelevancy and worse, he’s doing a heckuva job, Brownie.
Good morning Christy, thanks for asking!
Got the garden in, been hiking in the coastal hills once a week, sitting down with my eight year-old at the piano and *paying attention* to her and her playing, reading Alanna to her for the second time, making dates at least once a week with my lovely wife (funny how everything else gets prioritized in front of our relationships, isn’t it?), listening to my college freshman daughter when she calls, and keeping the business going without dedicating all my time to it. Having fun!
But most of all, on the other side of cancer treatment, for me it’s all about living authentically, with integrity and attention (and humor), which, for me, means not faking it or putting up with crap and junk in my life. A friend is on his death bed, cancer of the tongue that moved into his lungs and body. One of the nicest gentlemen I know, in a coma and on morphine for the last two days…and it’s a reminder: how do I want to live my life, today?
Yay!! I thought maybe someone “accidentally deleted your server”. Ha, ha.
Anyway, we had bad storms last night in Texas, and I was standing outside watching the storms approach and it looked like the Wizard of OZ. Going out tonight to hear some good music at Groene Hall in Groene, TX.
Mommybrain @ 38
Ha! Didn’t occur to me my comment was so local. But doesn’t EVERYONE know about Mono Lake being emptied to water the lawns of LA?
In answer to your question: si!
*waves back at PA_Lady*
I’ll think of you as I dig in my flower beds!
If the sun shines today, that is.
My so-called life?
Would be immeasurably improved with an OS X machine. MacBook preferred. Would settle for a Pismo.
Widget [LateNite thread..] envy. Just for starters…
Still, a functioning CPU is a functioning CPU.
—–
Yesterday’s Emptywheel-Mary-looseheadprop back-and-forth was sweet.
—–
Gawd…talk about wishful thinking…I was ready to see this from jayt above:
“
Christy -apologies for always misspelling your name.
Marion in Savannah — I’m so jealous. April in Savannah is delightful, except for the gnats.
what have I been doing to get healty? Lets see -4 weeks ago today, I went off of sugar completely. No sodas, no chocolate, no sweets, no sweetners of any type. Drink nothing but water and the occasional iced tea. I cannot tell you how much better I feel – oh, I’ve lost 13lbs.
Life without sugar is grand!
Mommybrain @ 44
Uh, that would be four blocks from my apartment. I’ll see you there about 8:00 a.m. tomorrow.
Old cafe, been there 40 years. Everyone in the neighborhood shows up during the morning. Bring the Times or the Globe.
Marie Roget @ 39
ANTOHER big wind storm this afternoon and tonight up here in Santa Barbara County, bring your chapstick. 60MPH gusts.
GPB, my Sprout got an electric guitar for his 8th birthday. When he was under 2, he used to play Daddybrain’s backpacking guitar, which he called his “bobo”. Now when the play together, it’s called “bobo jam”.
And…
“DON FUCKING IMUS GOT FIRED BY BOTH HIS EMPLOYERS…”
YEEEEE-HA!!!
We haad a birthday party for my wife last night. She told me it was her best ever. Steve Landsburg sent me spam this morning hawking his book “More sex is safer sex”; he thought I might be interested because I had sent him an email telling him I thought he was a thorough wanker. The screen shot for CNN this morning had this:
“Don Imus’ signature cowboy hat has been missing this week. CNN’s Jeanne Moos investigates (April 13)”
Jeanne Moos is gonna break this scandal wide open.
Hope all are doing well.
I am busy putting the final paint coat on 2 huge window boxes for my front windows. Got big plans for these babies. Although I don’t know how they will stay up. Not my job. I’ll share a full bloom picture in a couple of months.
ReneND -
Whaja gonna plant in your window boxes?
I’ve just bought a stability ball and am enjoying rolling around all over the house…so far doing no fewer than eight exercises draped over or on the ball. Anyone else an enthusiast?
scarecrow, I hate to break it to you, but…my cafe’s pancakes are better. We might need a
flap-jackpancake-off contest.Sorry about the server being down. How many million e-mails did you lose?
Waccamaw @ 63
Don’t know yet. Lots. They are big. Any suggestions??
This morning’s LA Times is floating the idea that the email’s might be gone for good:
Is this the next front? The dog not only ate the emails, but the damned critter seems to have implemented a new deletion policy for the email servers. Sigh. It finishes with this:
Good idea.
Scarecrow @
18
scarecrow – i’ve been trying to figure this out…. on the one hand, i guess it makes sense to appear optimistic (if one wants to get americans involved, we like to feel good about it)… on the other hand i just don’t get some of it….
did she really go around meeting people who weren’t part of the elite / leadership class (political or otherwise)? hard to believe, but not impossible.
and then there’s this:
my sense (would very much like to be wrong on this) is that, compared to 5-10 years ago, there is a lot more anger at the usa wrt to the plight of the palestinians (and how we treat arabs in general).
all in all, i think a good statement – if one is trying to manipulate american public opinion into taking action in a good direction… i just hate the feeling of being manipulated – i’d rather have the truth straight up.
LS @
53
That would be Gruene Hall in Gruene, Texas (technically in New Braunfels). The oldest dance hall in, I don’t know, the world?
scarecrow @ 18
thanks, Pelosi segment is very good. She’s coming into her own.
Good morning! So glad to be able to pull up the chair, finally. Thanks to the tech-types who fixed everything. I was traveling (for work) last weekend, and really missed my Saturday morning at FDL. So finding the Lake down this morning was extra sad.
Getting in shape. Yes. I’ve been eating better and exercising more, including some tai chi. It’s having some effect — my blood sugar readings are way down and stabilizing. Weight loss, not so much. I don’t know why that is.
Also reading Vonnegut, and reminding myself of the way I felt when I was a teenager and the world was new. I’d like to get some more of that passion back in my life — political passion, artistic passion — and stop flinching from the memory of all the blows that idealism has taken.
We’re going to the live opera tonight, Madama Butterfly, and tomorrow, Eugene Oneigen, at the movies from the Met. Cleaning out the espresso machine, savoring the thought of a fresh latte. Life is good.
We try to take 2-3 mile hikes several times a week, eat good nutritional food everyday (which includes sufficient amounts of red wine and dark chocolate), read Firedoglake, and watch the Daily Show and Colbert Report. These things help balance the daily onslaught coming out of DC.
Morning firepups,
It’s finally spring again in NE Iowa. We had 10 inches of ice and slush that kept my oldest two home for a day and a half. Today hi of 50 and we are hiking looking for wildflowers which will bloom shortly. My peanut will ride in the carrier with Dad who hopes it is not the last time. The snow will disappear along with Frosty who topples over yesterday in the melt.
Thanks for the haiku session last pm. I am inspired by all of you at FDL.
Good Morning! I got my avocado, orange, and peach tree fertilized. The two avocado trees lost their leaves in a great wind, but there are so many flowers hanging on, and the leaves are coming back new. I’ll make the guacamole!
Ben Sargent has a funny cartoon up – has a sign in the copy room saying “All roads lead to Ro
mve.”Educated Plaintiff at 47
Like energetic Spring breaking through the crust of a dark winter narrative!
So happy to see everyone back!
I live in a city, so I’m pushing myself to walk more and take public transportation less. And with spring arriving at the market in the form of asparagus, rhubarb et al, it’s getting a lot easier to eat better.
But the best thing I’m doing for myself is at least *trying* to turn off the computer a couple of hours earlier in the evening and knit a bit while watching TV. Sounds very boring, but it’s soooooo relaxing.
Mommybrain @ 36
Hope none of the tufa got into the toobz….
btw, Phoenix Woman has a fresh thread for everyone. Yay, the server is working like it is supposed to work again. Boo yah!
marksb @ 69
Theirs would be gone, mine would be in email gitmo.
ooooh, a Pull Up A Chair thread that’s not in the hundreds when I hit the Lake! Sorry about the servers (and about the fiance’s co-worker who woke us too early this morning to get a shift covered!) but it is nice to see the Saturday morning crowd. I hardly ever do!
Mommybrain, your box-unpacking makes me think of Minnie Driver in The Riches (our new FX guilty pleasure — with Eddie Izzard!)
I’ve been practicing myself but tonight I get to watch many MI experts do their thing at a Danse Orientale concert (aka bellydance).
about the only thing I’ve done lately for “self-improvement” is to take some extra time to train the puppy… she needs a few more manners..
lately we are working on a better “stay”… and her listening skills are improving a bit.
marksb @
60
Possible showers too I heard, & the reception’s in Lompoc, wind capital of the Central Coast. Windy in a formal dress & hat really brings the fun…Wedding couple is so amped, though, I doubt they’ll either notice or care.
Good morning Christy and Lakers, I am happy about spring in NE Iowa too. There are robins all over the lawn. My forsythia blooms are toast from the snowstorm, but the daffodils are thinking about giving it another go. Today we try to put a new roof on my studio, which caught fire in February. I am so ready to have it back.
Mommybrain @ 66
Better? Not even remotely possible. Also, we use real maple syrup, here. However, a national pancake tour to discover the truth is a worthy idea.
Everything’s blooming here. Very little rain, warm wind, and lotsa sun has made all the coastal mountain areas flower, and all this wind has filled the air (and nose) with pollen and dust. Wash your car and the next day it’s covered with pollen. It’s become a Claritin-powered Spring.
Scarecrow @ 89
please sell tickets for your tour!
Since this is kind of an open thread, I’d just like to make a comment on TRex’s post of late last night which I just read. It was totally refreshing to read a post and thread on this site which was not completely an apologia and uncritical acceptance of everything Patrick Fitzgerald does. Good for CREW and good for TRex!
cbl @ 50
cbl, I went over to windcatpond when fdl was down and see that you are the host!
Sharon @ 26
Thanks for the tip. This is an excellent site. Nice to hear what the candidates really say rather than have it filtered by the media.
This morning I’m relaxing by fixing a hole where the rain gets in. Tomorrow I hope to paint my room in a colorful way.
ReneND -
Well, I’m in NC vs. ND so not at all sure what would translate for your growing environ. How big is BIG?
Good morning Christie and FDL folks,
In response to the invitation to share what we’re doing for the good of our worlds, I’m involved in a broad range of neuropathy patient education and advocacy activities.
Neuropathy is the most common disease you’ve never heard of.
One of my long time dreams has been to use public transportation inner car card (the posters that are displayed on the inside of buses, etc.) advertising opportunities as a means to promote public awareness of neuropathy. A politically connected community activist with neuropathy midwifed the critical
institutional decision making that started the
fulfillment of my dream.
May is Neuropathy Awareness Month in northern California and we’re about to place some fantastic posters on the Sacramento Regional Transit buses (and hopefully on the buses in
Yolo, Placer and El Dorado counties, too) in the next few weeks. We also hope to place the posters at clinics, libraries, community and senior centers, etc. to reach even more folks.
Our graphic artist is in the process of creating a fantastic poster design that will grab everyone’s attention with a delightful cartoonish illustration of the symptoms and other essential information that will hopefully get folks with neuropathy calling us for information about the condition and the support groups in our region and get them to their doctors for proper diagnosis and treatment.
There has been such joy for me in helping this wonderful project evolve and I’m getting more and more excited about how we’ll be affecting the life and health of so many people, thanks to the funders and community activities who are making this happen.
Neuropathy is a neurological disorder that can be very disabling for some 20 million Americans because one or more of their nerves in the peripheral nervous system have been damaged from one or more of the 200 causes of neuropathy. Some of the causes are diabetes, alcoholism, vitamin deficiencies, chemotherapy, common medications, trauma, surgeries, auto-immune diseases, infectious diseases, environmental toxins, etc.
(I worry about the probably explosion of neuropathy among the returning wounded soldiers who are facing unbearable pain and disability because of Bush’s monstrous war.)
So, I’ve lots of publicity to write, PSAs to arrange, and distribution campaigns to organize.
But thanks be to God for the Sacto RT board and its fabulous General Manager, Beverly Scott PhD, for our national organization, The Neuropathy Association, and the board and support group leaders of our regional organization The Northern California Chapter of The Neuropathy Association, and the national and local donors who are under-writing this $1300 project for their various contributions to make the dream a reality.
That’s what I’m doing for the good of the world around me.
Blessings to all at FDL!
I really really need to clean the house and do my taxes.
But those tasks can’t keep me from my Saturday yoga class.
Wow, Kairos, from one who suffers, thank you!
JML @
46
JML, I wrote an analysis of it last week here.
I feel healthier not seeing Karl with an apple on my Mac, LOL.
Today for my soul health I’m taking my kids and son’s flute teacher and his wife to an African American woodwind quintet concert.
Imani Winds – if they play near you go see them! So far I went to a kid concert they did and we all loved it!
Christy – with regard to your question
“Little more exercise?”, I would like to point out the following warning.
I have found out the hard way that the body parts age differently. It is easy to improve your muscles and strength with exercise. This should improve your overall health. That is a no brainer. The problem is that other body parts such as your tendons and cartilege deteriorate with age. Thus a level of stress i.e a load or weight that is not difficult for your muscles can be too much for your tendons and cartilege. For you older folks, I want to warn you that you can literally tear yourself apart. “older” is not a fixed number but is related to the level of stress that you place on your body. Around 50 or older, it would be well to keep this in mind. I blew out both kness a long time ago ( about age 45 or so ). Just the other day ( at age 73 ) I pushed myself too hard while exercising. No real problem this time. Just a little sore. I expect it will take several weeks to fully recover from the strain on a few tendons.
If you are doing any weight training, I suggest that you increase the number of repititions and lower the weight. Even then – don’t push too hard.
ReneND @ 68
I would do lots of flowers in the back and
strawberries cascading over the front rim
Nice day here in CT, but waiting for the Nor’Easter tomorrow. Feeling sorry for the Boston Marathon runners….
And feeling very very sorry that CT put Joe Lieberman back in his catbird seat…the latest from the Bush suckup on the position of “war czar” is unbelievable. At this point I truly believe Lieberman is taunting the country with his Bush love affair.
Re #69, the LA Times article seems a little off-base; the quotes from specialists seem a little self-serving.
Storage costs are moving constantly downward; they are not a reason for companies to quickly delete electronic communications. Far more likely reasons include detailed electronic discovery rules and disclosure requirements, which yield data that haunt any large organization.
Users remain unable to stop chatting about illicit sexual and business transactions – from who’s carousing with whom, often in excruciating detail, to spurious pricing and marketing agreements, environmental violations, and purported rationales for engaging in illegal age and sex discrimination and other violations of workplace laws.
Companies have also realized painfully late how detailed meta-data can be. Backdating a memo used to be hard to prove. It’s woefully counterproductive now, when meta-data not only gives the right date, it reveals who wrote the memo and when, and who revised it and when.
The White House/RNC system will be hard to plum. But that will be by design, because they will have used the best people in the business.
Mommybrain @
66
Oooh – count me in. Channelling GOP conflict of interest sensibilities, I’ll enter AND judge!
Rocket Scientist – I have figured out what you say about tendons and cartilage the hard way. My bones and my muscles are still super strong. Plus I have found out I’ve developed spurs that can help rip the tendons. Not good when you are used to being a very strong gnome!
Actually I’ll throw the pancakes at Carmen’s in south Philly into the contest. I miss the weekend breakfasts there after moving.
Gee, while the server was down I’m grateful that you didn’t lose 5 million comments :)
I’ve cut out the kettle chips and Haagen Dazs, and we’ve developed a game based on the popular Afghan pasttime of kicking around a goat’s head. We’re using Karl Rove’s head. Sorry, Karl!
The MSM’s focus on the technical aspects of email retrieval really brings out my inner wonk…
But their focus on the shiny techy object…
Ignores the simple fact that the telecomm megacorps take the feed containing our phone/net traffic, duplicate the signals, and route the “duplicate” off to the NSA/spook world.
The telecomm megacorps copy all the traffic on their high speed cables and give it to the NSA.
By pre-Patriot Act law, the NSA is already authorized to capture, record, and analyze all electronic traffic going crossing the US’ national borders.
So all the Blackberry users (with the ‘berries Canadian HQ) share every message with the NSA.
Under the Echelon project:
IANAspook, but even MSM know the WH must use secure Federal phone lines to prevent interception.
All the non-WH traffic went through the NSA/spook/Ecehlon data vacuums.
The blogosphere (on FDL!) picked this weeks ago, and we’ve been writing about it on the Lake ever since.
Commenters from the Lake have shared the info at TPM, so the concepts are diffusing…
But they bear repeating:
Congress’s official subpoena powers allow the Senate and House to demand these records pursuant to their oversight role and their investigation of Contempt of Congress and other high crimes and misdemeanors.
Data, meet subpoena power.
[above from the massive official STOA report prepared for the European Parliament: “Development of Surveillance Technology and Risk of Abuse of Economic Information (an appraisal of technologies of political control).
STOA also has a nifty section on chemical weapons (aka “tear gas” and other fatal “non-lethal” crowd control technologies.
The communications intercept data above is from only one portion of the STOA report, which is an amazinig and neglected resource.
Written in the late 90’s, the full draft report has been most prescient in descriibing the physical means developed to suppress popular opinion and public will over the last decade.
The table of contents may be tempting:
Abstract
Executive Summary
Acknowledgements
Table of Charts and Figures
1 Introduction 1
2 Role and Function of Political Control Technologies 3
3 Recent Trends and Innovations 6
4 Developments in Surveillance Technology 15
5 Innovations in Crowd Control Weapons 22
6 New Prison Control Systems 40
7 Interrogation, Torture Techniques and Technologies 44
8 Regulation of Horizontal Proliferation 53
9 Conclusions 59
10 Notes and References 60
11 Bibliography [Separate file (85K); Zip-compressed version 32K] 73
Appendix 1. Military, Security & Police Fairs. [Not provided with report]
[Mod Note; in the future, fewer links in a single comment will avoid the spam filters.]
Guitar_Playing_Bastard says:
April 14th, 2007 at 8:42 am
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY, LIFE IS GOOD!
Some West Wing DVDs from Netflix, got here, my custom amp plates (with my name on ‘em) are on the way from the engraver, my re-coned Fender Blue Alnico speakers are on the way from Orange County Speaker.
Ah the eternal quest for the holy grail of tone
I know it well.
So elusive, ephemeral, capricious.
OT-John Edwards Is saying some good things in a forum with Move on. Don’t know if it is live.
KPOJ-am Portland, Oregon, so it must be on across the states-sorry to be so vague..just sayin’
a couple of weeks ago, on my birthday, i went with a bunch of teenagers and adults and planted trees in a rural area northwest of dresden. we planted more than 270 trees. i contributed twenty euros which paid for two trees. that’s not much, but imagine the kind of difference it would make if everybody did it.
E had a theatre reading she was performing at, was out for the evening. Meanwhile, i got back to the digs and O around seven, cooked burgers, watched a movie. Talked about life and death, and love, and loss. In the midst of this, Papa-san called us! O answered the phone, and talked to him for about ten minutes, then explained that E wasn’t here, then passed the phone to me. What ensued was the most amazing conversation i’ve ever had with the man, as he lies there in his hospital bed. Open, honest, loving, fearful, brave, tearfull, laughter, all of it. No one had apparently told him that E was coming out there tomorrow; i hastened to assure him it was to help Mom and her brother Chris, which gave him permission to accept it gratefully. I said I know you’re facing this huge hurdle, physically and spiritually, and he said oh yes, mostly spiritually, and proceeded to talk to me about the state of his spirit in deep and amazing terms. I was so honored. At the end, he broke a bit, and became a small child, and asked in that small-child voice if, if things went badly, could he call me and talk to me about what my mom and i had talked about as she was passing over? I said of course, of course, oh yes. I told him i loved him, i thanked him for the father he had become to me over these years, replacing the father i had lost or never fully had. Someone came into the room, and he had to go. It was a conversation of deep meaning and love, and full of awareness that it could be our last.
Then O snuggled up to me on the couch, and we had more deep conversation about death, and life, and coping with loss. We went through all the loved ones who were going to die, sooner or later, and pretty much covered everyone we knew, including me and the cats. And i pointed out to him that he too, someday, would die, which makes living all that much more important, moment to moment, while you still can. We didn’t wander into realms of speculation about afterlife or reincarnation, just the fact that all living things dies. I watched him regain acceptance of that, and stroked his hair. He fell asleep in my arms, there.
Ms. Smith,
I’m glad you are eating healthy. Not to get on to high a soapbox, but you really want to go to great lengths to avois bypass surgury. Getting rid of the trans fatty acids and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and doing 30 minutes of cardio-vascular exercise a day will go a long way to avoiding post-op extreme pain from aving your chest opened up. Been there, done that.
I just read a fantastic book by Chris Bohjalian called “The Double Bind.” If you’ve read it you know you need to go back to “The Great Gatsby.”
“Healthier food? Yep. Little more exercise?”
We have the example of our beloved Steve Gilliard here.