Happy Birthday Nephew Nick! Where are you in this pic? Slurping a slushy at Dairy Queen? I just can't figure out this scene! Placing a smile for Brother Mike, Too nice to say "take a hike"! Have a fun day in this cold! The weather and you are both getting old!
Happy Birfday Nick! Yeah -25 is pretty cold but the radio makes too much of it. I drove to Clarion and back last night no problem but to listen to the radio I shouldn'ta gone anywhere and if I did I shoulda packed some sled dogs just in case. I listened to the local news this morning and it was all weather and weather-related closings. Not a stinkin town council meeting agenda or arrest report or accident-nothing. (I guess they did have funeral announcements) The entire broadcast was 100% weather.
Aw, come on, Nick, smile! It's your birthday! I think this picture is from Old Chicago in Peoria, IL right before Creighton beat Bradley, taken by Braden Ortega using Ed's camera. The kids had as much fun hiking the five blocks to the game and back as they did at the arena.
Every year Safety Santa gives our kids some kind of safety-related item. If I had known how cold this winter was gonna be I would have opted for generic gloves, socks, hats and chocolate bars wrapped in a blanket - a car survival kit. But Santa found a great deal on road atlases so at least they know where they're going.
We should have a straubslog fitness challenge (but without revealing our weight!) I notice at least 8 of us have resolved to lose weight/get in shape. Any ideas? Do we need a competition to make it work? I would be glad to serve as a repository of confidential information.
Has anyone seem Slumdog Millionaire? The youngest Jamal looks a lot like Nick when he was that age. Cute kid. Great movie.
I started my first freelance gig today working on Qwest at an agency called DraftFCB. Nothing beats a day rate on top of severance. Stuffing checks under my mattress...
I tried to get the Algona UDM and I just get the Ames Tribune. wonder what happened. McSlimey said he would bring change but surely he has bigger things to worry about! This is proof he doesn't care about small-town America. It's not too late-he hasn't been sworn in yet! IBM announced 1300 new jobs in Dubuque! Last fruit of the Bush economic policy, prolly won't see more jobs anytime soon with B Hussein O taking over. He doesn't pass the smell test and his initials, BO, prove it. Did I see where he wants to put together a bigger "economic rescue plan" than Bush? At least Bush had the decency to wait until the last days of his term to pass out money and pardons to buddies. Body Odor comes right out of the gate with a huge smelly pile of borrowed money to shove across the table to his constituency. "Here-take it! It didn't cost me anything."
here's an idea! Make office chairs with contoured seats so that the butt-cheeks, as they expand, are molded, jello-like, into a decent shape. A big office supply company is named Hon. I wonder if they'd go for it. I give this, with no renumeration requested, to anyone who can just take the last few easy steps to making this happen. I've carried it this far. As fashion changes you could change out the molded seat cushion to develop whatever rear-end contour is in style. I'll bet no-one has a better invention idea.
I wonder if "Slumdog" will come to Algona? "Late Night Ferguson" asked NBC's Norah O'Donnell what Obama smelled like...she couldn't remember. I smell Gitmo closing... Joe...the money is sitiing on the table...
Joe, do you mean a butt chair exersizer? (spell check please!
School closed, now 3 days in a row, I'm beginning to like 50 below. We walked home last night in the cold, Our cars were blocked in by snowplows so bold!
It will get up to -2 at noon today. At least the sun is shining. Joe3, as long as you're going that far with the office chair, why not install some kind of passive exercise feature, such as periodic electric shocks that would cause convulsive muscle contractions? It would have the added benefit of keeping everyone awake.
Why is it that Randy seems to think that any diet dish automatically is classified as cholesterol busting? He came home with frozen diet panini's. That's an oximoron. (sp?) lisa
Is anyone else sad they toned down the wackiness of the ShamWow guy? Probably now, but I loved that crazy guy and his fake microphone. Now there's new commercials and he's just not as crazy.
Has anyone seen "Milk"? Benjamin Button looks good, but I really want to see Milk or Slumdog Millionaire and neither look like they're coming to Ames anytime soon.
Who all is entered in the chili cookoff? Stevo proposed that we should have a "cast-iron cookoff" at the farm. Let's see, it must be made on site, in a cast iron vessel, and ready by a predetermined lunch time. Everyone eating casts a vote and the winner gets serious points in The Games. Whaddya think? If nothing else, it makes for a killer lunch.
wind chill when I woke up this morning was -51. It didn't really fee any different than -21. That was the real temp. After a certain point it doesn't really matter.
Mike and I entered this year as a team "Team M&M"...it should be fun!
Crazy video of the plane in the Hudson River, what a pilot! I want him on every flight I take...the NYFD and the other rescue folks were great, too. I bet the water was freezing...brrrrrrrrrrrr.
I'm with you Ellen. I like the Sham-wow guy. I bet it would be fun to throw down a couple of cold ones with him. But since they toned him down I don't remember what the second product is he's pitching. Lesson learned. You almost have to be outrageous in advertising to be remembered.
We're havin' a heat wave (finger snaps)....a tropical heat wave.....it is now officially 18 ABOVE zero, rising over the next couple days to a possible 40! I might have to plant something.
I bought some more glasses yesterday because we didn't have any to go with the moose and bear plates. We have way too many glasses. That Kohl's is dangerous with their evil clearance racks. Can't...stop.....
HAMMOND, Ind. - In a scene straight out of the movie "A Christmas Story," a 10-year-old Indiana boy got his tongue stuck to a metal light pole.
Hammond police say the unidentified fourth-grader was able to tell them that a friend dared him to lick the pole Wednesday night. Temperatures in the Chicago suburb were around 10 degrees at the time.
By the time an ambulance arrived, the boy was able to yank his tongue off the frozen pole.
Algona residents: We are thinking of coming tomorrow for the chili cook off but still have not made up our minds. The thing is we ordered a sports package for 3 mos to watch some of the Creighton games and Scott has ony been able to see half of one game so far because of work stuff. Tomorrow's game will air and we kinda want to watch it. Also, Scott had to go to Des Moines and back yesterday and some place in the middle of Wisconsin and back on Wed, so he's not eager to get in the car. Do any of you guys have Fox Sports Midwest? Then we could watch the 3 o clock game there before going to the cook off.
ANother option is that we may run down there Sunday - of course missing the Sat night fun, but we have some stuff of Little Don's to take him. So maybe we could all get together Sunday for dinner or something? Do the kids have school on MLK day?
Emily, I know we couldn't get the last Creighton game that was on FOX...I don't know if Joe or Tom do...I'll find out. If you decide on Sunday, then you could spend the night at our house, if you want...just let me know. I'm working untill 2 and then have to get the chili stuff ready!
We saw Valkyrie last night - it was pretty good. We're seeing Frost/Nixon tonight and maybe Defiance tomorrow. Movie matinee catchup marathon. In our spare time we'll take down Christmas decorations and make a 15-bean soup. Yes, they're still up. Wish we could come to the chili cookoff. Good luck!
Shamwow guy is fun, but Billy Mayes is so aggressive that it seems threatening. Whenever he yells at me I end up talking to the TV.....Calm Down! I don't want to make my own Sliders!
I was unemployed for almost a year and never saw this shamwow guy. It must have a larger audience in the midwest? We went out with mom and dad and saw the worst elvis impersonator ever. I got my photo taken with him, and he gave mom a teddy bear.
We had dinner at Mary Ellen's last night along with some delectable Greek food Emily and Scott trucked down from Minneapolis. Best Greek Olives ever. All of it was fantastic.
Mary's Busch Light was also especially satisfying.
Unfortunatly, Eli has strep. He and Nance couldn't there.
I like Billy Mays better than the Shamwow guy. Maybe BECAUSE he inspires me to yell back at the TV. "Yeah! That's amazing, Billy! But I don't want it!" I saw the new shamwow guy this weekend, and yes, they've let the air out of him. Sales will plummet.
So what do you think? Will Shamwow ever replace the paper towel? Because in spite of our growing commitment to living "green" I did just buy this neat paper towel holder last month. I would have to buy 100 shamwows to take the place of paper towels. Even though we're out of them half the time.
I like the shamwow guy in his onion chopper commercial. he says things like, "you're gonna love my nuts" just before he chops up a bunch of nuts. Then he throws the shoddy competition onion chopper over his head and it lands in the sink behind him. Entertainment!
When Andy and I were doing some house hunting in Des Moines this weekend, we noticed one neighborhood had snowman after snowman in people's yards that just kept getting bigger and bigger. Like, all of them were at least six feet tall and had oranges for eyes. Then, we saw the ultimate snowman. No joke, it went up to the second story of the house it was in front of. Had to be close to 20 feet tall. They used snow shovels for arms and they were actually proportional!
And another thing about Sham wow- does anyone actually spend $50 and month on paper towels?
I hate to be a party pooper but these premature analogies and comparisions to Kennedy and Lincoln are coming far too easy for Obama. So far all he has given is words. The media and groupies should wait at least a year before they ratify his sainthood.
FUnny story about that UPS pitchman. He works for their ad agency and does what I do. I'm sure the UPS clients got so used to him presenting the idea that they insisted that he be "the guy" and not some actor. Yeah, what's up with his hair?
I don't really want to punch the UPS pitchman. His hair just annoys me. Kind of like when you see a 45 year old woman wearing stylishly ripped jeans (ripped at the factory) and a belly shirt.
Now Obama is George Washington. I just heard a talking head compare his unflappable demeanor (they must have forgotten some of the debates) with George Washington steadying his troops as bullets ripped past his head.
I like the UPS guy! He's professorial. They don't live by the same rules, fashionwise.
This morning as I was listening to the coverage I remarked to Stevo that maybe Obama is the antichrist. He seems to arouse such passion - both pro and con. I voted for the guy and aside from the abortion issue I like him better than anyone I can remember who ran for president, but he's not the second coming. People think the right guy or the right policy or the right program will solve everything and nobody even considers changing anything about themselves. But I do like the optimism and the challenge to sacrifice for each other. Let's see how many follow through.
A big thank you to Emily and Scott for the Our Big Greek Dinner, it was very nice and yummy...the kids tried a bite (or more) of almost everything. I'm certain the Busch Light tasted soooo good because it was served in Straub Beer glasses! Thanks for coming over, Tom, Joe Et Al! How's Eli doing?
The question is: Why are they comparing him to anybody? Well, "they" are not doing the comparing. Barak himself, even during the primary campaign, began the comparisons by doing certain things, taking certain routes, etc. that Lincoln took. The media did not need too much encouragement after that so now, almost everything he does evokes a Lincolnesque comparison. Dad
Well, he's president now, so moving forward people will be compared to him. I'm happy - it was a fabulous speech and, by the way, I know the poet who spoke. I've had drinks with her and been her contact for a few events. A nice, SMART, person. P
I don't have a beef with the guy per se. But, he came as close to plagiarizing Kennedy in a speech a week or so ago. He borrowed from the "ask not what your country can do..." line. He only changed a couple of words.
Had this been anyone else (Biden?) they would have been all over him. But the press is too busy fawning all over him.
I'm not impressed with the fact that he's the first "black" president. I'm way beyond that. I don't care what color you are.
Besides...he's not a typical black person. He didn't rise from "the hood". He rose from the his white grandparent's home. It's not the same. A step forward, racially, but not the same as if he were a 10th or 13th generation Black American.
Though he was happy to use Black American political machinery to advance himself. And, he swam easily in the fetid pool that is Chicago politics.
I do hope he's a great president. We need a smart guy doing what's right. He certainly shows the potential.
My cynicism is borne of the process. It's all money and imagery that gets you elected these days. And to a large part race. At least in this case. If you recall he was at many times fairly fluid in his statements and at others disclosed little. But the mantra "change" was a constant. A veiled reference to race. At times this was all we heard.
I don't think that race is the number one reason to vote for someone. But many people did. It's wrong.
Tom, the only forgiving of Bush will be for Gitmo and torture, I don't think they will prosecute, but they could...(I talked to Steve Kollasch about it at the fancy party last night..haha..your name came up in regards to an alumni basketball game.)
Not that it matters, but it turns out that the Chief Justice messed up the words of the oath, not Obama.
I think it's great that a black baby born to an unwed eighteen year old in the early sixties in Kansas can grow up to be president. No matter if he was raised by his white grandparents. HE still is an unlikely candidate who through hard work and smarts made it to the top. No he's not squeaky clean. No one at that level is.
I dunno. When a priest screws up in mass I don't assume arrogance. Some things are just a simple mistake. As this was. But then again he's a Republican appointee so I'm sure it has to be arrogance or maybe even something really sinister.
Em- I too am glad that a black man can be president. It means they too have a back pack. They need to follow Obama's example and use it instead of falling on excuses.
I just hope that they get the financial rescue package right. I have Biden's sisters email. She told me to let her know if there is ever a message I would like to get to Biden that I should feel free to do so.
I'm going to suggest to him that they take a part of this money and more than underwrite SBA loans. Also, that they should streamline the process. One month turn around would be nice.
We might feel that we're all way "beyond race" but if you're black in America today you are still not in the club. I'm not offering that as any kind of excuse for bad behavior or poor performance. It's just a fact. I was very touched seeing tears on so many black faces because rightly or wrongly this IS a kind of vindication or ligitimization for them. It's more symbolic than real, but symbols are very important in shaping belief and basic attitude. I also sense that reporters have been trying to raise little issues (was Obama taking a personal crack at Bush during his speech? etc.) and people in general are having none of it. They feel like OK, enough of the divisiveness, let's get to work. It won't last forever, but he is greatly responsible for that attitude. And I loved both of Michelle's dresses.
SBA loans should be streamlined. And I can't believe we gave all that money to banks and financials without any way to enforce that they would shake a little loose.
On the "Ask a priest" page in our diocesan newspaper someone from Nebraska asked if it's moral for a Catholic to declare bankruptcy. They want to buy a house but they have so many debts coming due that they think daclaring bankruptcy would make their lives so much easier. This is so clueless on so many levels I'm surprised the priest was able to answer civilly. There is much learning to be done, Grasshopper.
Michelle and Jill Biden both looked great. Michelle had a great dress and jewelry for the night, and Jill's dress made her look really young. Did anyone watch the ball coverage on ABC? One of the reporters, I can't remember what ball she was at or know her name, was wearing a horrific dress. It was reddish pink velvet on top with a red tulle skirt and some kind of gold designs down the sleeves. Full coverage, up to her neck. I haven't seen a dress like that since my Irish dancing days. Did anyone else see this?
For some reason, the front page of the Register wasn't posted where it normally is online. I'll try to put up a photo when I'm at work on Friday. But if you happen to pick up a copy (shameless pitch) you will see it has poster pages to commemorate the inauguration on the front and back. We originally wanted to do a wrap with one picture that covered the entire front and back page, but we didn't end up getting a photo that would work. We really needed some of Malia's pictures, but they weren't letting any AP photogs close enough to get that angle.
If you go to www.newseum.org you can look at front pages from all over the country. It's interesting how many just have a full-page picture with just a simple headline, usually using the words "hope" or "change." My favorite so far is the Chicago Redeye, with a full-page picture with a superimposed headline saying "America 2.0"
Like all papers it has some troubles right now. We get the Sunday paper by subscription. It's nice to have for a leasurely Sunday.
How could it be better? The "Iowa Life/Travel" section (That's what is is, right?) could be so much better if there where more features from the outlying areas. Instead, after page 2 you are bound to read about the scenes in Madrid or some other other far off place.
I believe the Sunday circulation could be increased if this section had more features written about average Iowans.
Of course, what comes to mind for me first is a restaurant review section. There are tons of good restaurants outside the metro.
Beyond that there is always human interest features that could be done on places like The POW museum or what not. There are tons of things that could fill that section.
However, it's obvious that costs are a concern for the paper and I have no idea about the business or how it's run. Maybe it's a lot cheaper for the paper to run what they do.
So there you go, Joe. If they want me on the editorial board I would be happy to oblige. : )
I actually think that Juice (which is probably available only in the metro area) covers those far-flung areas better. From reading Brianne's blog, they have lots of stories about neat places to go in Iowa, etc. So people in Algona would never even know it if they did a story about the POW thing or the great restaurant on the highway. Some of that should migrate into the Register itself.
Four years from now, when Chief Justice Roberts administers the oath of office for the president, he should take out and unroll a big long scroll, like a munchkin, with the oath written on it, just for laughs.
Four years from now, when Chief Justice Roberts administers the oath of office for the president, he should take out and unroll a big long scroll like a munchkin with the oath written on it, just for laughs.
Mary - you are absolutely right about Bush being forgiven for Gitmo. The men held there did not fight within the confines of the Geneva convention. They are part of an organization that, unprovoked killed 3000 Americans.
The detention camps for Japanese Americans during WW2 are now a sidebar to history. As will be Gitmo.
Bush was facing a country under attack by an enemy using no rule book what so ever. The extremes he undertook has kept the country safe.
If Obama is "tested" (a la Joe Biden's warning) by way of a dirty bomb in downtown Chicago or any other place or any other type of attack, and it comes to light that this attack could have been prevented except for the fact that Obama let his foot off the gas in regard to combating terrorism, then this will be a 4 year presidency. Also, no democrat will sit in the Whitehouse for a generation.
Did you all see that Obama took the oath once again "just in case" because he and the justice stumbled over one another in the ceremony? Probably a good idea. Ha.
Did I say that? No. I just said history will be more forgiving of Bush than we are today.
Speaking of this...In this season's episodes of 24 Jack Bauer is in front of the Senate having to answer for his strong arm tactics. The over acting this season is brilliant. Much like Star Trek.
Obama had to take the oath again because the oath is spelled out word for word in the constitution (except for the so help me God part) It is the only part of the constitution that is so precise and it makes the ruler not above the consitution.
Tom...I didn't mean that Bush will be forgiven for Gitmo 'cause history will prove it's worthyness(sp)...I simply meant that the U.S. will probably forgive the crime of Gitmo and not prosecute, becasue it will be too divisive. BUT...someone at the U.N. is starting to push for war crime charges against Bush, et al...I would gleefully support that!
Scroll down a bit, and it's the one below the RedEye with the "America 2.0" headline.
As you can see, I had the same idea as a lot of other papers. But it was hard to pass up that shot. It was the first time they've let them set up a camera that close during the oath, and the photographers had to lobby for weeks with secret service and Obama people to have it there.
Several, if not many, of the people held at Gitmo (and God knows how many other secret places) were noncombatants swept up for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I listened to a story of a Pakistani student who had studied in the US and was traveling near the pakistan border and was "turned in" by a hostel keeper because the US was offering bounties of thousands of dollars for terrorist suspects. He absolutely had no ties to any terrorist organization. After being held and tortured in an Afghan prison for a while, he was sent to Gitmo and kept there more than two years, not being allowed to see his lawyer after they finally gave him one, being questioned "aggressively" - he said, by the way, that yes, he did lie and tell them what he thought they wanted to hear to stop the torture several times - and was finally and inexplicably released to Pakistan with several others. He thinks they knew they had made a mistake well more than a year before they dumped him. We will be paying for that kind of stuff for generations.
Cathy and Mary...I would rather light a candle than curse your darkness. So please consider this...
"...It is the great care Obama is taking in not pre-emptively abandoning the anti-terrorism infrastructure that the Bush administration leaves behind. While still a candidate, Obama voted for the expanded presidential wiretapping (FISA) powers that Bush had fervently pursued.
And while Obama opposes waterboarding (already banned, by the way, by Bush's CIA in 2006), he declined George Stephanopoulos' invitation (on ABC's "This Week") to outlaw all interrogation not permitted by the Army Field Manual.
Explained Obama: "Dick Cheney's advice was good, which is let's make sure we know everything that's being done," i.e., before throwing out methods simply because Obama campaigned against them.
Obama still disagrees with Cheney's view of the acceptability of some of these techniques. But citing as sage the advice offered by Cheney — advice paraphrased by Obama as "we shouldn't be making judgments on the basis of incomplete information or campaign rhetoric" — is a startlingly early sign of a newly respectful consideration of the Bush legacy.
Not from any change of heart. But from simple reality. The beauty of democratic rotations of power is that when the opposition takes office, cheap criticism and calumny will no longer do. The Democrats now own Iraq. They own the war on al-Qaida. And they own the panoply of anti-terrorism measures with which the Bush administration kept us safe these last seven years.
Which is why Obama is consciously creating a gulf between what he now dismissively calls "campaign rhetoric" and the policy choices he must now make as president. Obama will be loath to throw away the tools that have kept the homeland safe. Just as he will be loath to jeopardize the remarkable turnaround in American fortunes in Iraq.
Obama opposed the war. But the war is all but over. What remains is an Iraq turned from aggressive, hostile power in the heart of the Middle East to an emerging democracy openly allied with the United States. No president would want to be responsible for undoing that success."
That's from our good friend Charles Krauthammer. Now do you see? Is the light a little better?
I don't know Charles K. You can parse Obama's statements all you want. The whole concept of Gitmo was wrong from the beginning - a place offshore where we can hold anonymous prisoners without charging them, without offering any legal or human rights, without allowing any international monitoring of their conditions - it's hard to imagine anything that's more in direct contradiction of the very rights that define our nation. We were the bad guys here and if Obama doesn't address the situation immediately I'll be very disappointed. Reporters who ask for pledges from candidates on future conduct in hypothetical situations are looking for a cheap headline or quote or are setting up for a future story ("Obama changes his mind") regardless of the fact that they themselves started the story. They're making news instead of reporting it. That is no attempt at clarity or truth.
And I (along with many military and intelligence experts) very much doubt that we got much or any decent intelligence under torture. I have never heard of any instance where direct intelligence of this sort saved any American lives. I realize that it's all under a veil of secrecy but don't you think Cheney/Rummy/et all would have leaked a little anecdotal evidence in self-defense if there was any to be had? They're all good leakers. Grrr. I don't want them to be prosecuted. I just want them to disappear forever. And maybe take away all Cheney's Halliburton wealth. And. well, ok, just feather-torture Rummy a little.
Bush's CIA may have banned waterboarding, but we'll be riding that wave for many years to come
Joe3...I think you may have been wiretapped, news is that under Bush they would tap ALL quick conversations (like terrorist might have), 2 minutes or under, and they have ALL been saved...maybe you can sue, if you were talking to clients.
Cathy - you said "We were the bad guys here." Wrong. Al Qaeda were/are the bad guys. And your anecdotal story about one innocent guy being detained is unfortunate. But, despite other's perceptions, I know that the military and intelligence personnel in charge of the detentions were not interested in detaining innocents. They wanted and were after the bad guys. The really, really bad guys. They took no pleasure in knowingly rounding up innocent people.
As far as I have heard the only person who was definitely waterboarded was Kalid Sheik Mohammed. The information gathered lead to the arrest of several more confirmed terrorists.
In it's purest definition I am against torture. But am not against all "aggressive" interrogations .
Back to my original point...Unless Obama muffs this, 20 years from now the Middle East will be a far better place than it is now or even before the war. All because Bush fell for Saddam's bluff that he had WMDs.
A recollected interview. I'll find out more. While your waiting consider the notion that in this supposed "war for oil" we do not control a single drop of oil coming out of the Middle East.
It was just a war against a very, very bad man who much of the world thought had WMDs and had proved that he was not above using them in the past.
Well, I have to turn the tables and accuse you of being naive if you really believe that no military or intelligence people were "interested" in detaining innocents. Some of them were at best indifferent to the knowledge that they in fact detained hundreds of innocents and were subjecting them to torture. Did you miss Abu Ghraib? The Republican and Republican-appointed federal judge who was given oversight of the military commissions trials at Gitmo says so. She also says that the prosecutions of all those real terrorists may have been fatally compromised by the actions of the CIA and some of the military in charge there, including the inability of prosecutors to proceed with their cases because records and recordings of the interrogations have "disappeared." So now that we're trying to behave in accordance with our own Constitution, we have the problem of holding people we know are the bad guys but not being able to prosecute them because of the malfeasance of somer of the people making the decisions. For this reason alone I am in favor of passing some kind of "do not prosecute" thing protecting those officials, if only in hope that some of those records will eventually be "found." And I was telling the story of one innocent guy but you know darn well he wasn't the only one. And of course Al Quaeda were the bad guys. So we became the bad guys too. Morally bankrupt thinking.
At some point in my earlier writing I thought someone might say "What about Abu Graib?" And that I should make it known that Abu Graib is not Gitmo. I guess I should have done this because now I am niave.
What happened at Abu Graib was wrong. Putting a bunch of weekend warriors from Tennessee in charge of that prison was a bad idea.
What happened at Gitmo was far less wrong. If cruelty was employed at Gitmo it was for a greater end. At Abu Graib it was only for sick pleasure.
I couldn't agree more with you on Iowa Life. Sometimes they repurpose my stories for the "big kid paper" as I call it. To be honest (don't tell my boss' boss) the features department totally lacks organization. I pitched a story about Iowans who lived through the Great Depression and heard crickets from editors, until an AP piece on the topic came through and they decided they needed someone to beef it up quick with local content. I recently pitched an idea for a series called "Good Neighbors" where we'd do short little profile/narrative stories about neighborly acts happening across the state. I think people would love that, but I haven't heard anything. Gets me frustrated, but the features staff is bare-bones right now, so they probably ignore my brilliant/annoying e-mails. You should know my co-worker wrote about Sister Sarah's in Juice last summer! She raved about you guys (and the Cheeto.)
So, in reporting on fitness challenge last week, I learned about quinoa — a grain that has all the amino acids of meat. Superfood! My friend Cara (the Sarah's fan) posted a recipe on her blog if anyone is interested: http://www.failedfeminist.com/2009/01/quinoa-with-corn-and-scallions.html
I heard about but never saw that article about Sarah's in Juice. Any chance there is a link for it?
Quinoa was called the Food Of The Gods by pre-Columbus South Americans.
Someone will probably figure out a way to get quinoa in our gas tanks and it will get priced out of reach.
That's the lunacy of corn based ethanol. It has caused major price upswings in just about every food commodity. It and the poor economy is killing restaurants. Corn Flakes belong on the table. Not in my Chevy.
We aren't terrorists, we can't equal the lowest common torture denominator because they're doing it. Our prisons have to have rules and a certain order, the world is watching. Now, if I were Daniel Pearl's family, I might hire some thugs to search out those other thugs. What did Angelina do?
Sean can't answer. He's in school. Text him though and I bet he answers. Just kidding. I'm sure Sean (Mr. Mary Geelan or whatever his name is) is busy with other customers asking the same thing.
Mary-the post was about Abu Graib, and my point remains that the worst conduct at Abu Graib was not remotely close to the hideous acts of our enemies. There is absolutely no way to approximate the 2, morally. These guys aren't nice guys. Screw 'em.
We have been eating quinoa (sp?) at least once or twice a week for months in our family. It has a slightly bitter oil that is released once cooked. I mix it with other grains and it's nutritious and yummy.
I totally believe we must not ever base our behaviors on how our enemies are behaving. Aside from defending ourselves, of course. Abu Ghraib WAS that bad. It became a recruiting tool that probably sent and is sending countless hostile, underemployed young men over the edge into a terrorist organization. And every non-terrorist who was in there now hates America with a passion. It was so needless and so counterproductive and so damaging to the US. Of course the assholes who kidnapped and murdered Pearl were cowardly murderous jerks. So we want to be like them? And then when our soldiers are captured, what do you think will happen to them? I guess we should deserve better treatment because we're the good guys. Only we're NOT ANY MORE. That's the legacy of this war. We're going to be paying for this for a long time.
Joe, we don't have to invite them to our birthday parties. We have to treat them like prisoners of war. And some of them were innocent, at least until we turned them into anti-americans.
Gitmo - not so much. When you are in a street fight there are no rules.
Imagine you are Bush. You've taken an oath to protect the country. It's your number one job.
A couple of month later you have 3000 dead citizens and you have no idea what else is coming. I might say to my spooks and generals, "Go get those guys. I don't care what you have to do, just get them."
They come back and say, "Okay, we have some of them. There's this thing called waterboarding. Makes them think they are going to drown but has no long term health risks. Do we do it?"
"When you are in a street fight there are no rules." When you have a man in custody there are rules. We signed on to them. We executed war criminals based on them. The rules (the law) are there to protect us from our own passions. Of course I would like to see the jerks that have committed some of these atrocities suffer and die. That doesn't make it right!
What if it's confirmed that he's onew of the really, really bad guys. You know he's already been behind atrocities. What if this man knows something. Something that puts your comrades and citizens in danger.
He's broken "the rules". He's not in uniform. He attacked unprovoked. He's killed non military targets including kids. And his buddy is about to do the same.
Would you only ask him name, rank and serial number. Nope. It's Jack Bauer time.
I just realized that my "what ifs" weren't what ifs to someone, somewhere. It's the real world. Not some ethereal place. This is what happened. And it had to. Our hand was forced.
"How do you ever know if a confession is real if you are using torture to get it?"
I don't know. It's not my line of work. But to those running Gitmo it is. I'm sure they can, to some degree, filter the BS. What they can't they have to run down.
The records (when they can find them) coming out of Gitmo are indicating otherwise. It's chaotic, undirected, messy. I think that with a few exceptions, nobody knew who they had there or what they were there for. People routinely got lost in piles of paperwork. The cases where you know this guy did this, and you know he knows something specific that you need to know to save lives were very few, if any. Your description of a hypothetical situation occurred seldom - I'm giving you maybe three times in the whole history of this mess so far. Yet our administration institutionalized things that our government has condemned when used by others and imprisoned hundreds of men for years with no human rights and tortured many of them. Gitmo's gotta go - it's a recruiting poster for jihadists.
"The first of Obama's three orders directed the closure of the Guantánamo prison within a year and a freeze on military commissions, the panels of military officers created to try terror suspects.
Unlike criminal proceedings in civilian courts, the commissions allow the government to introduce hearsay, evidence obtained by coercive means and secret materials that defendants and their lawyers are prohibited from seeing...
A second executive order created a special task force headed by the incoming attorney general and Defense Secretary Robert Gates that will recommend within 180 days new policies for detaining, trying, transferring or releasing suspected terrorists that adhere to U.S. and international laws.
The third order revokes the Bush administration legal re-interpretations of interrogation methods permitted under the 1949 Geneva Conventions. It requires all interrogators, including those working for the CIA, to adhere to a revised U.S. Army Field Manual. The manual and the U.S. criminal code bars techniques such as waterboarding, which simulates drowning, that's considered torture." from the Miami Herald
I'm not equating the actions of our enemies with what happened at Abu Ghraib. They're not equal. That's irrelevant. I'm saying that what happened there was still wrong on so many fronts that it has probably cost lives, alliances, prolonged the war, and on and on. And it stemmed from a top-down culture that said the gloves are off and we don't have to obey the rules of civilization. Cowboy bullshit.
"So, do you find some slob who's already a lost soul? Because, I believe torture sort sets ya back, eternity-wise."
Sounds good to me.
I'm just curious about the whole torture thing. I mean, some of the early reports were a scantily clad "dirty" woman sitting on the nut-cases lap. This was defined as torture. And since waterboarding seems to be the one that gets the most press - it doesn't hurt you. So what exactly is the torture Keith Olberman is all up in arms about?
We're having an exhibit right now titled "SHock of the Read: Photorealism" and this woman called and wouldn't get off the phone and was just crazy. LIke, "what, is there gonna be blood and stuff everywhere?" Then she wanted to know everything else we have at the museum. I get at least one call like this a day.
Just had a low-fat subway sandwich...I'm off low-carb...I just couldn't have meat for breakfast anymore...and Mike didn't lose any weight (for the first time, on low carbs).
Everything is cancelling!! School's out, games cancelled! What's going on, the sun is shining!
Pat, do you have evening openings with wine and food? In Omaha and Chicago it's always the first Friday of every month...a person can go around to all the free openings and get perfectly satiated with art, wine and food!
INDEPENDENCE, Iowa – An Iowa woman has been arrested because failed to return a library book.
Thirty-nine-year-old Shelly Koontz was arrested Thursday night on a fifth-degree theft charge. She is accused of keeping "The Freedom Writers Diary," which she checked out from the public library in nearby Jesup in April.
Police say the book — which is about a high school teacher's effort to inspire students to write — is valued at $13.95.
Court records show library employees tried repeatedly to contact Koontz by phone and mail. A police officer even visited her home last September.
Officials at the Buchanan County jail say Koontz was released after posting $250 bond. No telephone listing for Koontz could be found in the Independence area.
Crimony! Obama has unleashed the fascist hounds. All this over a book?
Umm - I suppose what is going to happen now that Obama wants to coddle the enemy, is that our spooks out in the war will just outright kill suspects when encountered since they can't be detained.
I'm going to quit this argument, except to say that a scantily-clad "dirty" woman sitting on a prisoner's lap is a woman who has been pimped out by her own commanders, willing or not. Come on. Is this the America you want your kids to believe in?
Since everyone else wisely keeps trying to change the subject I'm done. Go ahead and get in your last morally questionable arguments.
I was touched by the Bush girls' open letter to Sasha and Malia. Dang, it just started snowing. It reached 60 in Lincoln yesterday. Pat, is it cold there?
Florida's unemployment rate has reached 8.1% - that's pretty high.
It is 70 now but it was cold enough for Jupiter to have some frost last night. It was lows in the 30s for a couple days. The Uggs were out in full force. p
Those "dirty women" were CIA. Professional interrogators. They were dirty because they were having their periods. For a radical Islamic man her and her dirty underwear (which apparently were waved in front of their faces) are pure torture. An embodiment of evil.
My geography is a little weak but I do have some recollection of a place called Manhattan. I think it's part of New York. Early September 2001, I think.
3000 dead. Many burned to death. Many crushed to death. Many jumped out of windows to their death. Horrific deaths all.
And we had no idea what was going to happen next. So if we offended the world by the use of these "dirty women" or the whole waterboarding thing then too bad. I would suspect they would think differently had it happened to them.
You're right. You can't thrust your morality on me.
Many papers today have histories of Gitmo in them. Facts: 775 men have been held there. The government called them the "most hard-core" which makes me wonder why they have released 550 of them. Then they said the ones they had left were "the worst of the worst" the day before they quietly released 20 more. Most of these men are back with their families trying to put their lives back together. One - one! - has been rearrested. All of them have been watched closely since thay were released. They were never terrorists. Several were held on "suspicion of planning to join" a terror organization. Of course, the hefty bounties paid for these accusations had nothing to do with the fact that they were arrested (sarcasm). Oh, yeah, I forgot all about those 3000 Americans killed, including my next-door neighbor's son. Sure, arrest anyone in a turban and throw'em in a hole.
We saw "Frost/Nixon" last night and think it was VERY good. At first I thought Frank Langella's portrait of Nixon was not quite right, but he actually created a great Greek tragedy character. Real tight shots and escalating tension. Warning: no cars blowing up. I wonder if anyone who didn't live through that time would find it as compelling.
It doesn't bother me at all that almost all of the music at Obama's inauguration was lipsynced or recorded. After all, because of the frigid weather most of the instruments would have been out of tune. So the artificial beginning of the new age really doesn't matter.
What does bother me is that on Obama's third full day in office he issued an executive order that reversed our nation's ban on giving our tax dollars to international groups that perform abortions or provide abortion information. And we are not talking about abortions for rape and incest victims. We are talking about family planning--a euphemism for birth control. We will now be promoting abortions to achieve birth control. How do I know that is what he had in mind? These are his words when he signed the executive order: "For too long, international family planning assistance has been used as a political wedge issue, the subject of a back and forth debate that has served only to divide us." So I guess we should not debate about moral issues. He also said that the ban undermined family planning in undeveloped countries. So there is no doubt he favors abortion to assist in family planning. With one swipe of his pen he will participate in the deaths of more human beings in a matter of weeks than the number of service and civilian deaths in Iraq in the 5 or 6 years since that unjust war began. Dad
Belated thanks for all the birthday wishes to Nick. That is an excellent photo taken by Braden.
We had the flu bug roll through our house last week so Nick didn't have the greatest birthday. He had to stay home from school and we didn't want to have his celebration while he was sick so we put it off a day. The next day he was still sick but he wanted to get his hands on his gifts so Erin went ahead and baked his cake. He took about one bite of cake and ice cream then tore into his gifts. But his biggest gift was letting him pick out a new bike. So he had to wait a couple days for that. We picked it out on Saturday and it was cold and icy so he couldn't ride his new bike.
He liked everything he got but he wasn't feeling well and it was spread out over a couple days so I think it was all sort of anti-climatic for him.
The flu ended up laying all of us low except for Gillian. She escaped unscathed.
I wanted to get Uncle Bob's address because I don't have it with us. I Googled "Mission Helpers of the Holy Savior" and it is just amazing all the information, including videos, that are available. So if you are interested in seeing scenes from the monestary in Mexico, that's how you can do it.
By the way, his address is: Father Pablo Straub, C.SS.R. Mission Helpers of the Holy Savior P.O. Box 6035 Las Cruces, NM 88006
He does not encourage sending him mail in Mexico because it takes so long and not all of it gets through. A lady in Las Cruces gets his mail, deposits the checks he receives and sends correspondence to him. If you want to write to him ask the lady to FAX your letter to him. Dad
So Pfizer (PFE) is buying Wyeth (WYE). Pfizer says: "Says each outstanding share of Wyeth common stock to be converted into right to receive $33 in cash and 0.985 of a share of Pfizer common stock." This equals about $50.19 for each Wyeth share.
Also said Pfizer's quarterly dividend will be reduced to $.16 a share.
This morning Pfizer announced a bid to purchase Wyeth Drugs. the offer was for $50.19 per share, an 11% premium over it's current market price of $45.35 per share. Merry Christmas!
Have a Great Day!
237 comments:
1 – 200 of 237 Newer› Newest»Happy Birthday, Nick!
Old Man Winter brought you an Artic Air Mass for your birthday. Forcasted low tonight is -25. That's actual temp - not wind chill.
Tom
Happy Birthday Nick! Have pizza for dinner. There is nothing better. And chocolate cake.
P
Happy Birthday Nick!
Happy Birthday Nephew Nick!
Where are you in this pic?
Slurping a slushy at Dairy Queen?
I just can't figure out this scene!
Placing a smile for Brother Mike,
Too nice to say "take a hike"!
Have a fun day in this cold!
The weather and you are both getting old!
Aunt Mary and Uncle Mike
Happy Birfday Nick!
Yeah -25 is pretty cold but the radio makes too much of it. I drove to Clarion and back last night no problem but to listen to the radio I shouldn'ta gone anywhere and if I did I shoulda packed some sled dogs just in case. I listened to the local news this morning and it was all weather and weather-related closings. Not a stinkin town council meeting agenda or arrest report or accident-nothing. (I guess they did have funeral announcements) The entire broadcast was 100% weather.
Aw, come on, Nick, smile! It's your birthday! I think this picture is from Old Chicago in Peoria, IL right before Creighton beat Bradley, taken by Braden Ortega using Ed's camera. The kids had as much fun hiking the five blocks to the game and back as they did at the arena.
Hi Brianne,
We like you too, except for---oh well, I'd better not say it here. Looking forward to seeing you again in the spring.
Joe's Grandpa
Does velociraptor mean you eat real fast? Or chase down lunch real fast? Because I can do that. Either one.
Or does it mean that with one bite you can achieve rapture, because dark chocolate surrounding caramel does it for me.
Every year Safety Santa gives our kids some kind of safety-related item. If I had known how cold this winter was gonna be I would have opted for generic gloves, socks, hats and chocolate bars wrapped in a blanket - a car survival kit. But Santa found a great deal on road atlases so at least they know where they're going.
Happy Birthday Nick! Did you get a day off from school? We did here in honor of your birthday (or the weather).
Peter says,"Happy birthday Nick. I hope you have an aweaome bithday Nick. Get some great presents."
Aunt Monica and Peter
We should have a straubslog fitness challenge (but without revealing our weight!) I notice at least 8 of us have resolved to lose weight/get in shape. Any ideas? Do we need a competition to make it work? I would be glad to serve as a repository of confidential information.
I get it...Brianne posted last below...we like you too!
Happy Birthday, Nick.
Has anyone seem Slumdog Millionaire? The youngest Jamal looks a lot like Nick when he was that age. Cute kid. Great movie.
I started my first freelance gig today working on Qwest at an agency called DraftFCB. Nothing beats a day rate on top of severance. Stuffing checks under my mattress...
Happy Birthday Nick! Maybe you'll get the rest of the week off from school...
escape the freezing weather!
I'm sad! The Algona Upper Des Moines disappeared from the web.
p
Brianne-you shouldn't worry so much about swivel-chair butt. That's better than overstuffed easy-chair butt or sofa-butt.
I tried to get the Algona UDM and I just get the Ames Tribune. wonder what happened. McSlimey said he would bring change but surely he has bigger things to worry about! This is proof he doesn't care about small-town America. It's not too late-he hasn't been sworn in yet!
IBM announced 1300 new jobs in Dubuque! Last fruit of the Bush economic policy, prolly won't see more jobs anytime soon with B Hussein O taking over. He doesn't pass the smell test and his initials, BO, prove it. Did I see where he wants to put together a bigger "economic rescue plan" than Bush? At least Bush had the decency to wait until the last days of his term to pass out money and pardons to buddies. Body Odor comes right out of the gate with a huge smelly pile of borrowed money to shove across the table to his constituency. "Here-take it! It didn't cost me anything."
Brianne - that gossip about you is on the other Straub blog.
Tom
Actually, Obama can't lose. BC even if he doesn't do well, there is always the horrid situation he was handed.
p
here's an idea! Make office chairs with contoured seats so that the butt-cheeks, as they expand, are molded, jello-like, into a decent shape. A big office supply company is named Hon. I wonder if they'd go for it. I give this, with no renumeration requested, to anyone who can just take the last few easy steps to making this happen. I've carried it this far. As fashion changes you could change out the molded seat cushion to develop whatever rear-end contour is in style.
I'll bet no-one has a better invention idea.
I wonder if "Slumdog" will come to Algona?
"Late Night Ferguson" asked NBC's Norah O'Donnell what Obama smelled like...she couldn't remember.
I smell Gitmo closing...
Joe...the money is sitiing on the table...
Joe, do you mean a butt chair exersizer? (spell check please!
School closed, now 3 days in a row,
I'm beginning to like 50 below.
We walked home last night in the cold,
Our cars were blocked in by snowplows so bold!
It will get up to -2 at noon today. At least the sun is shining. Joe3, as long as you're going that far with the office chair, why not install some kind of passive exercise feature, such as periodic electric shocks that would cause convulsive muscle contractions? It would have the added benefit of keeping everyone awake.
Happy birthday Nick!
What did you do and what did you get?
You must be very patient with your brother.
Lisa
Emma & Mary, too.
Why is it that Randy seems to think that any diet dish automatically is classified as cholesterol busting? He came home with frozen diet panini's. That's an oximoron. (sp?)
lisa
Happy BIrthday Nick! Did you get the day off too?
It's still -20 below right now. That's air temp. Windchill is -36. Tomorrow's high of +9 will feel wonderful!
Joe 3 why are you such a hater? You should at least direct your hate where it belongs.
Creighton won in overtime last night. Exciting game.
Is anyone else sad they toned down the wackiness of the ShamWow guy? Probably now, but I loved that crazy guy and his fake microphone. Now there's new commercials and he's just not as crazy.
Has anyone seen "Milk"? Benjamin Button looks good, but I really want to see Milk or Slumdog Millionaire and neither look like they're coming to Ames anytime soon.
Emily...on the Bluejay website it said the game would be on FoxSports...we couldn't get it, did you get it?
Chili cookoff in Whittemore THIS Saturday!!!
Who all is entered in the chili cookoff? Stevo proposed that we should have a "cast-iron cookoff" at the farm. Let's see, it must be made on site, in a cast iron vessel, and ready by a predetermined lunch time. Everyone eating casts a vote and the winner gets serious points in The Games. Whaddya think? If nothing else, it makes for a killer lunch.
Couples could compete sepatately or as a team, but if they win as a team they have to split the points.
I'm so bored.
It's above zero!
wind chill when I woke up this morning was -51. It didn't really fee any different than -21. That was the real temp. After a certain point it doesn't really matter.
Monica
Mike and I entered this year as a team "Team M&M"...it should be fun!
Crazy video of the plane in the Hudson River, what a pilot! I want him on every flight I take...the NYFD and the other rescue folks were great, too.
I bet the water was freezing...brrrrrrrrrrrr.
I'm with you Ellen. I like the Sham-wow guy. I bet it would be fun to throw down a couple of cold ones with him. But since they toned him down I don't remember what the second product is he's pitching. Lesson learned. You almost have to be outrageous in advertising to be remembered.
Tom
IT looks like you all may get some relief from the cold this weekend.
P
I'm trying to jump Nance's car right now.
I see the hand of the Lavelle clan in this...
http://www.startribune.com/nation/37700884.html
Tom
Jump start or jump? Because white men can't jump.
Mary & Emma love the sham wow and think we need it.
A cast-iron cook off. Funny, I was just looking at a cast-iron dutch oven longingly at Christmas. I wasn't sure I'd be able to lift it when full!
Lisa
We're havin' a heat wave (finger snaps)....a tropical heat wave.....it is now officially 18 ABOVE zero, rising over the next couple days to a possible 40! I might have to plant something.
I bought some more glasses yesterday because we didn't have any to go with the moose and bear plates. We have way too many glasses. That Kohl's is dangerous with their evil clearance racks. Can't...stop.....
It's still below 0 here. It's supposed to be above zero ina couple hours.
HAMMOND, Ind. - In a scene straight out of the movie "A Christmas Story," a 10-year-old Indiana boy got his tongue stuck to a metal light pole.
Hammond police say the unidentified fourth-grader was able to tell them that a friend dared him to lick the pole Wednesday night. Temperatures in the Chicago suburb were around 10 degrees at the time.
By the time an ambulance arrived, the boy was able to yank his tongue off the frozen pole.
Did the friend double-dog dare him?
Will this work day never end?
p
Oh, it will end, Pat. But the next one will be just like it. So will the one after that. And the next, and the next, and the next.....
Tom
Algona residents: We are thinking of coming tomorrow for the chili cook off but still have not made up our minds. The thing is we ordered a sports package for 3 mos to watch some of the Creighton games and Scott has ony been able to see half of one game so far because of work stuff. Tomorrow's game will air and we kinda want to watch it. Also, Scott had to go to Des Moines and back yesterday and some place in the middle of Wisconsin and back on Wed, so he's not eager to get in the car. Do any of you guys have Fox Sports Midwest? Then we could watch the 3 o clock game there before going to the cook off.
ANother option is that we may run down there Sunday - of course missing the Sat night fun, but we have some stuff of Little Don's to take him. So maybe we could all get together Sunday for dinner or something? Do the kids have school on MLK day?
Emily, I know we couldn't get the last Creighton game that was on FOX...I don't know if Joe or Tom do...I'll find out. If you decide on Sunday, then you could spend the night at our house, if you want...just let me know. I'm working untill 2 and then have to get the chili stuff ready!
Damn!... this peanut butter is giving me a gut ache.
Em- we get Fox Sports North so we get endless updates on the crappy state of affairs in Minnesota sports.
No Fox Midwest.
Tom
We saw Valkyrie last night - it was pretty good. We're seeing Frost/Nixon tonight and maybe Defiance tomorrow. Movie matinee catchup marathon. In our spare time we'll take down Christmas decorations and make a 15-bean soup. Yes, they're still up. Wish we could come to the chili cookoff. Good luck!
Joe J is designing tomorrow's Inaugeration section of the DMRegister, in case you get it.
inauguration
Shamwow guy is fun, but Billy Mayes is so aggressive that it seems threatening. Whenever he yells at me I end up talking to the TV.....Calm Down! I don't want to make my own Sliders!
I wanna punch the UPS pitchman. Him and his clever little drawings! Get a damn haircut! You're not 19 anymore!
Tom
I was unemployed for almost a year and never saw this shamwow guy. It must have a larger audience in the midwest?
We went out with mom and dad and saw the worst elvis impersonator ever. I got my photo taken with him, and he gave mom a teddy bear.
p
We had dinner at Mary Ellen's last night along with some delectable Greek food Emily and Scott trucked down from Minneapolis. Best Greek Olives ever. All of it was fantastic.
Mary's Busch Light was also especially satisfying.
Unfortunatly, Eli has strep. He and Nance couldn't there.
Thanks Mary, Mike, Scott and Emily.
Tom
I like Billy Mays better than the Shamwow guy. Maybe BECAUSE he inspires me to yell back at the TV. "Yeah! That's amazing, Billy! But I don't want it!" I saw the new shamwow guy this weekend, and yes, they've let the air out of him. Sales will plummet.
It's all a sham!
Monica
So what do you think? Will Shamwow ever replace the paper towel? Because in spite of our growing commitment to living "green" I did just buy this neat paper towel holder last month. I would have to buy 100 shamwows to take the place of paper towels. Even though we're out of them half the time.
Hope Eli feels better soon.
Hey, how was the chili cookoff?
If you were to wash a load of shamwows in the washing machine, wouldn't they just soak up all the water and not actually get clean?
I like the shamwow guy in his onion chopper commercial. he says things like, "you're gonna love my nuts" just before he chops up a bunch of nuts. Then he throws the shoddy competition onion chopper over his head and it lands in the sink behind him. Entertainment!
When Andy and I were doing some house hunting in Des Moines this weekend, we noticed one neighborhood had snowman after snowman in people's yards that just kept getting bigger and bigger. Like, all of them were at least six feet tall and had oranges for eyes. Then, we saw the ultimate snowman. No joke, it went up to the second story of the house it was in front of. Had to be close to 20 feet tall. They used snow shovels for arms and they were actually proportional!
And another thing about Sham wow- does anyone actually spend $50 and month on paper towels?
I wonder if you could use shamwows to prevent flooding. Like build a 1-inch-high dike and when the water came it would expand like the 50-foot woman.
I hate to be a party pooper but these premature analogies and comparisions to Kennedy and Lincoln are coming far too easy for Obama. So far all he has given is words. The media and groupies should wait at least a year before they ratify his sainthood.
Tom
We're supposed to drop to the mid to upper 30s tonight. That's COLD! Better stock up on oranges...
p
Tom,
FUnny story about that UPS pitchman. He works for their ad agency and does what I do. I'm sure the UPS clients got so used to him presenting the idea that they insisted that he be "the guy" and not some actor. Yeah, what's up with his hair?
I don't really want to punch the UPS pitchman. His hair just annoys me. Kind of like when you see a 45 year old woman wearing stylishly ripped jeans (ripped at the factory) and a belly shirt.
Now Obama is George Washington. I just heard a talking head compare his unflappable demeanor (they must have forgotten some of the debates) with George Washington steadying his troops as bullets ripped past his head.
Tom
Tom-you put a couple things together in that last sentence that will surely land you on some sort of list.
Yea - I thought of that afterward. I'm probably already on the list.
Tom
I like the UPS guy! He's professorial. They don't live by the same rules, fashionwise.
This morning as I was listening to the coverage I remarked to Stevo that maybe Obama is the antichrist. He seems to arouse such passion - both pro and con. I voted for the guy and aside from the abortion issue I like him better than anyone I can remember who ran for president, but he's not the second coming. People think the right guy or the right policy or the right program will solve everything and nobody even considers changing anything about themselves. But I do like the optimism and the challenge to sacrifice for each other. Let's see how many follow through.
And Tom, you gotta admit he's really pretty unflappable. No drama Obama.
Unflappable except when asked to repeat an oath.
Randy had his health screening today!
I hope we have hamburgers for dinner.
Lisa
He's the first Black president, and that's the HUGE DEAL..Why are they comparing him to anybody?
It's a great day for America!!!
Tom...his transition has been great and bi-partisan...do you have a beef with that?
A big thank you to Emily and Scott for the Our Big Greek Dinner, it was very nice and yummy...the kids tried a bite (or more) of almost everything. I'm certain the Busch Light tasted soooo good because it was served in Straub Beer glasses! Thanks for coming over, Tom, Joe Et Al! How's Eli doing?
The question is: Why are they comparing him to anybody? Well, "they" are not doing the comparing. Barak himself, even during the primary campaign, began the comparisons by doing certain things, taking certain routes, etc. that Lincoln took. The media did not need too much encouragement after that so now, almost everything he does evokes a Lincolnesque comparison. Dad
I'm glad you think so...stop gushing.
Does that mean I shouldn't take the Lincoln Highway?
Michelle's much better looking than Mary Todd (Lincoln).
Well, he's president now, so moving forward people will be compared to him. I'm happy - it was a fabulous speech and, by the way, I know the poet who spoke. I've had drinks with her and been her contact for a few events. A nice, SMART, person.
P
I don't have a beef with the guy per se. But, he came as close to plagiarizing Kennedy in a speech a week or so ago. He borrowed from the "ask not what your country can do..." line. He only changed a couple of words.
Had this been anyone else (Biden?) they would have been all over him. But the press is too busy fawning all over him.
I'm not impressed with the fact that he's the first "black" president. I'm way beyond that. I don't care what color you are.
Besides...he's not a typical black person. He didn't rise from "the hood". He rose from the his white grandparent's home. It's not the same. A step forward, racially, but not the same as if he were a 10th or 13th generation Black American.
Though he was happy to use Black American political machinery to advance himself. And, he swam easily in the fetid pool that is Chicago politics.
He's not a squeeky clean guy.
Tom
Also, history will be much more forgiving of Bush than we are today. Especially, if some form of democracy takes hold in the Middle East.
And, don't be surprised if Bush is very much vindicated when many of Obama's policies will form a continuity with Bush's. More so, in foreign affairs.
Tom
Here's a link to a cool Obama video by Daft Punk and Freelander. Your connection needs to be pretty swift for a smooth stream.
http://creativity-online.com/work/view?seed=b31b9971
Tom I'm glad you're way beyond his race. We'll just have to wait for all those black people to catch up.
P
Pat - I'm not sure what your point is.
I do hope he's a great president. We need a smart guy doing what's right. He certainly shows the potential.
My cynicism is borne of the process. It's all money and imagery that gets you elected these days. And to a large part race. At least in this case. If you recall he was at many times fairly fluid in his statements and at others disclosed little. But the mantra "change" was a constant. A veiled reference to race. At times this was all we heard.
I don't think that race is the number one reason to vote for someone. But many people did. It's wrong.
Tom
Is there a ling to Joe J's front page?
Lisa
BAck home now, Mary's sick
Lisa
Pat, the poet who read right after Barack's speech? That poem was beautiful! How do you know her?
Tom, the only forgiving of Bush will be for Gitmo and torture, I don't think they will prosecute, but they could...(I talked to Steve Kollasch about it at the fancy party last night..haha..your name came up in regards to an alumni basketball game.)
Not that it matters, but it turns out that the Chief Justice messed up the words of the oath, not Obama.
I think it's great that a black baby born to an unwed eighteen year old in the early sixties in Kansas can grow up to be president. No matter if he was raised by his white grandparents. HE still is an unlikely candidate who through hard work and smarts made it to the top. No he's not squeaky clean. No one at that level is.
Roberts did screw up, didn't bother to have it on a note card...go to Drudge Report and you can read it line by line...pretty arrogant of him.
I dunno. When a priest screws up in mass I don't assume arrogance. Some things are just a simple mistake. As this was. But then again he's a Republican appointee so I'm sure it has to be arrogance or maybe even something really sinister.
Em- I too am glad that a black man can be president. It means they too have a back pack. They need to follow Obama's example and use it instead of falling on excuses.
I just hope that they get the financial rescue package right. I have Biden's sisters email. She told me to let her know if there is ever a message I would like to get to Biden that I should feel free to do so.
I'm going to suggest to him that they take a part of this money and more than underwrite SBA loans. Also, that they should streamline the process. One month turn around would be nice.
Tom
We might feel that we're all way "beyond race" but if you're black in America today you are still not in the club. I'm not offering that as any kind of excuse for bad behavior or poor performance. It's just a fact. I was very touched seeing tears on so many black faces because rightly or wrongly this IS a kind of vindication or ligitimization for them. It's more symbolic than real, but symbols are very important in shaping belief and basic attitude. I also sense that reporters have been trying to raise little issues (was Obama taking a personal crack at Bush during his speech? etc.) and people in general are having none of it. They feel like OK, enough of the divisiveness, let's get to work. It won't last forever, but he is greatly responsible for that attitude. And I loved both of Michelle's dresses.
Just relax and surrender to the audacity of hope, wouldja?
Tekk Biden that we offer cheap dance lessons at the Algona YMCA.
SBA loans should be streamlined. And I can't believe we gave all that money to banks and financials without any way to enforce that they would shake a little loose.
On the "Ask a priest" page in our diocesan newspaper someone from Nebraska asked if it's moral for a Catholic to declare bankruptcy. They want to buy a house but they have so many debts coming due that they think daclaring bankruptcy would make their lives so much easier. This is so clueless on so many levels I'm surprised the priest was able to answer civilly. There is much learning to be done, Grasshopper.
They also requested a quick, simple (yes-or-no) answer. I guess they don't want to have to read too much.
tell Biden (hope Tekk Biden isn't some terror code word!)
Michelle and Jill Biden both looked great. Michelle had a great dress and jewelry for the night, and Jill's dress made her look really young. Did anyone watch the ball coverage on ABC? One of the reporters, I can't remember what ball she was at or know her name, was wearing a horrific dress. It was reddish pink velvet on top with a red tulle skirt and some kind of gold designs down the sleeves. Full coverage, up to her neck. I haven't seen a dress like that since my Irish dancing days. Did anyone else see this?
For some reason, the front page of the Register wasn't posted where it normally is online. I'll try to put up a photo when I'm at work on Friday. But if you happen to pick up a copy (shameless pitch) you will see it has poster pages to commemorate the inauguration on the front and back. We originally wanted to do a wrap with one picture that covered the entire front and back page, but we didn't end up getting a photo that would work. We really needed some of Malia's pictures, but they weren't letting any AP photogs close enough to get that angle.
If you go to www.newseum.org you can look at front pages from all over the country. It's interesting how many just have a full-page picture with just a simple headline, usually using the words "hope" or "change." My favorite so far is the Chicago Redeye, with a full-page picture with a superimposed headline saying "America 2.0"
Just my 2 cents worth here on the Register....
Like all papers it has some troubles right now. We get the Sunday paper by subscription. It's nice to have for a leasurely Sunday.
How could it be better? The "Iowa Life/Travel" section (That's what is is, right?) could be so much better if there where more features from the outlying areas. Instead, after page 2 you are bound to read about the scenes in Madrid or some other other far off place.
I believe the Sunday circulation could be increased if this section had more features written about average Iowans.
Of course, what comes to mind for me first is a restaurant review section. There are tons of good restaurants outside the metro.
Beyond that there is always human interest features that could be done on places like The POW museum or what not. There are tons of things that could fill that section.
However, it's obvious that costs are a concern for the paper and I have no idea about the business or how it's run. Maybe it's a lot cheaper for the paper to run what they do.
So there you go, Joe. If they want me on the editorial board I would be happy to oblige. : )
Tom
I actually think that Juice (which is probably available only in the metro area) covers those far-flung areas better. From reading Brianne's blog, they have lots of stories about neat places to go in Iowa, etc. So people in Algona would never even know it if they did a story about the POW thing or the great restaurant on the highway. Some of that should migrate into the Register itself.
Juice is a Register publication that is sort of a metro guide to what's happening, where the fun is, etc. kind of like the Reader in Omaha.
Four years from now, when Chief Justice Roberts administers the oath of office for the president, he should take out and unroll a big long scroll, like a munchkin, with the oath written on it, just for laughs.
Four years from now, when Chief Justice Roberts administers the oath of office for the president, he should take out and unroll a big long scroll like a munchkin with the oath written on it, just for laughs.
Mary - you are absolutely right about Bush being forgiven for Gitmo. The men held there did not fight within the confines of the Geneva convention. They are part of an organization that, unprovoked killed 3000 Americans.
The detention camps for Japanese Americans during WW2 are now a sidebar to history. As will be Gitmo.
Bush was facing a country under attack by an enemy using no rule book what so ever. The extremes he undertook has kept the country safe.
If Obama is "tested" (a la Joe Biden's warning) by way of a dirty bomb in downtown Chicago or any other place or any other type of attack, and it comes to light that this attack could have been prevented except for the fact that Obama let his foot off the gas in regard to combating terrorism, then this will be a 4 year presidency. Also, no democrat will sit in the Whitehouse for a generation.
Tom
Did you all see that Obama took the oath once again "just in case" because he and the justice stumbled over one another in the ceremony? Probably a good idea. Ha.
I did see that, Des. And in the photo if you look closely you can see that he has his fingers crossed behind his back.
Tom
Well just becuse the suspected terrorists at Gitmo didn't adhere to the Geneva convention I guess that makes it OK if we don't either.
Did I say that? No. I just said history will be more forgiving of Bush than we are today.
Speaking of this...In this season's episodes of 24 Jack Bauer is in front of the Senate having to answer for his strong arm tactics. The over acting this season is brilliant. Much like Star Trek.
Tom
Obama had to take the oath again because the oath is spelled out word for word in the constitution (except for the so help me God part) It is the only part of the constitution that is so precise and it makes the ruler not above the consitution.
lisa
Tom...I didn't mean that Bush will be forgiven for Gitmo 'cause history will prove it's worthyness(sp)...I simply meant that the U.S. will probably forgive the crime of Gitmo and not prosecute, becasue it will be too divisive. BUT...someone at the U.N. is starting to push for war crime charges against Bush, et al...I would gleefully support that!
You can see the Register's front and back page from Wednesday here:
http://www.visualeditors.com/apple/2009/01/wednesday-obama-inaugural-fronts/
Scroll down a bit, and it's the one below the RedEye with the "America 2.0" headline.
As you can see, I had the same idea as a lot of other papers. But it was hard to pass up that shot. It was the first time they've let them set up a camera that close during the oath, and the photographers had to lobby for weeks with secret service and Obama people to have it there.
Several, if not many, of the people held at Gitmo (and God knows how many other secret places) were noncombatants swept up for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I listened to a story of a Pakistani student who had studied in the US and was traveling near the pakistan border and was "turned in" by a hostel keeper because the US was offering bounties of thousands of dollars for terrorist suspects. He absolutely had no ties to any terrorist organization. After being held and tortured in an Afghan prison for a while, he was sent to Gitmo and kept there more than two years, not being allowed to see his lawyer after they finally gave him one, being questioned "aggressively" - he said, by the way, that yes, he did lie and tell them what he thought they wanted to hear to stop the torture several times - and was finally and inexplicably released to Pakistan with several others. He thinks they knew they had made a mistake well more than a year before they dumped him. We will be paying for that kind of stuff for generations.
The US would not tell his family where he was, although he begged them. They figured he was dead. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Woo-woo, Joe! You got a shout out.
Hey, we never heard the results of Randy's test.
p
Nice work, Joe. Congratulations.
Cathy and Mary...I would rather light a candle than curse your darkness. So please consider this...
"...It is the great care Obama is taking in not pre-emptively abandoning the anti-terrorism infrastructure that the Bush administration leaves behind. While still a candidate, Obama voted for the expanded presidential wiretapping (FISA) powers that Bush had fervently pursued.
And while Obama opposes waterboarding (already banned, by the way, by Bush's CIA in 2006), he declined George Stephanopoulos' invitation (on ABC's "This Week") to outlaw all interrogation not permitted by the Army Field Manual.
Explained Obama: "Dick Cheney's advice was good, which is let's make sure we know everything that's being done," i.e., before throwing out methods simply because Obama campaigned against them.
Obama still disagrees with Cheney's view of the acceptability of some of these techniques. But citing as sage the advice offered by Cheney — advice paraphrased by Obama as "we shouldn't be making judgments on the basis of incomplete information or campaign rhetoric" — is a startlingly early sign of a newly respectful consideration of the Bush legacy.
Not from any change of heart. But from simple reality. The beauty of democratic rotations of power is that when the opposition takes office, cheap criticism and calumny will no longer do. The Democrats now own Iraq. They own the war on al-Qaida. And they own the panoply of anti-terrorism measures with which the Bush administration kept us safe these last seven years.
Which is why Obama is consciously creating a gulf between what he now dismissively calls "campaign rhetoric" and the policy choices he must now make as president. Obama will be loath to throw away the tools that have kept the homeland safe. Just as he will be loath to jeopardize the remarkable turnaround in American fortunes in Iraq.
Obama opposed the war. But the war is all but over. What remains is an Iraq turned from aggressive, hostile power in the heart of the Middle East to an emerging democracy openly allied with the United States. No president would want to be responsible for undoing that success."
That's from our good friend Charles Krauthammer. Now do you see? Is the light a little better?
Tom
I don't know Charles K. You can parse Obama's statements all you want. The whole concept of Gitmo was wrong from the beginning - a place offshore where we can hold anonymous prisoners without charging them, without offering any legal or human rights, without allowing any international monitoring of their conditions - it's hard to imagine anything that's more in direct contradiction of the very rights that define our nation. We were the bad guys here and if Obama doesn't address the situation immediately I'll be very disappointed. Reporters who ask for pledges from candidates on future conduct in hypothetical situations are looking for a cheap headline or quote or are setting up for a future story ("Obama changes his mind") regardless of the fact that they themselves started the story. They're making news instead of reporting it. That is no attempt at clarity or truth.
And I (along with many military and intelligence experts) very much doubt that we got much or any decent intelligence under torture. I have never heard of any instance where direct intelligence of this sort saved any American lives. I realize that it's all under a veil of secrecy but don't you think Cheney/Rummy/et all would have leaked a little anecdotal evidence in self-defense if there was any to be had? They're all good leakers. Grrr. I don't want them to be prosecuted. I just want them to disappear forever. And maybe take away all Cheney's Halliburton wealth. And. well, ok, just feather-torture Rummy a little.
Bush's CIA may have banned waterboarding, but we'll be riding that wave for many years to come
Joe3...I think you may have been wiretapped, news is that under Bush they would tap ALL quick conversations (like terrorist might have), 2 minutes or under, and they have ALL been saved...maybe you can sue, if you were talking to clients.
I do wish Obama would
regretfully accept that future Treasury secretary's withdrawal from consideration. Come on.
Cathy - you said "We were the bad guys here." Wrong. Al Qaeda were/are the bad guys. And your anecdotal story about one innocent guy being detained is unfortunate. But, despite other's perceptions, I know that the military and intelligence personnel in charge of the detentions were not interested in detaining innocents. They wanted and were after the bad guys. The really, really bad guys. They took no pleasure in knowingly rounding up innocent people.
As far as I have heard the only person who was definitely waterboarded was Kalid Sheik Mohammed. The information gathered lead to the arrest of several more confirmed terrorists.
In it's purest definition I am against torture. But am not against all "aggressive" interrogations .
Back to my original point...Unless Obama muffs this, 20 years from now the Middle East will be a far better place than it is now or even before the war. All because Bush fell for Saddam's bluff that he had WMDs.
Tom
Kalid Sheik didn't give up anyone...what's your source.
I'm OK with aggressive tickling...or saying things like "mooooooooohammed, what's your beef?"
A recollected interview. I'll find out more. While your waiting consider the notion that in this supposed "war for oil" we do not control a single drop of oil coming out of the Middle East.
It was just a war against a very, very bad man who much of the world thought had WMDs and had proved that he was not above using them in the past.
Tom
Well, I have to turn the tables and accuse you of being naive if you really believe that no military or intelligence people were "interested" in detaining innocents. Some of them were at best indifferent to the knowledge that they in fact detained hundreds of innocents and were subjecting them to torture. Did you miss Abu Ghraib? The Republican and Republican-appointed federal judge who was given oversight of the military commissions trials at Gitmo says so. She also says that the prosecutions of all those real terrorists may have been fatally compromised by the actions of the CIA and some of the military in charge there, including the inability of prosecutors to proceed with their cases because records and recordings of the interrogations have "disappeared." So now that we're trying to behave in accordance with our own Constitution, we have the problem of holding people we know are the bad guys but not being able to prosecute them because of the malfeasance of somer of the people making the decisions.
For this reason alone I am in favor of passing some kind of "do not prosecute" thing protecting those officials, if only in hope that some of those records will eventually be "found." And I was telling the story of one innocent guy but you know darn well he wasn't the only one.
And of course Al Quaeda were the bad guys. So we became the bad guys too. Morally bankrupt thinking.
And the CIA itself has admitted to waterboarding three persons at Gitmo alone. Probably the ones whose evidence didn't "disappear."
What's for dinner tonight?
Last Monday at GITMO:
Whipped potatoes
Sweet and Sour Soup
Beef tongue with leaks
Bobbing watermelon balls.
Whipped cream shots.
You forgot the angry onions.
Chicken legs with asparagus spears.
Smoked ribs.
Smack and cheese.
American Chops
artiCHOKEs
sticky buns
At some point in my earlier writing I thought someone might say "What about Abu Graib?" And that I should make it known that Abu Graib is not Gitmo. I guess I should have done this because now I am niave.
What happened at Abu Graib was wrong. Putting a bunch of weekend warriors from Tennessee in charge of that prison was a bad idea.
What happened at Gitmo was far less wrong. If cruelty was employed at Gitmo it was for a greater end. At Abu Graib it was only for sick pleasure.
Tom
Tom,
I couldn't agree more with you on Iowa Life. Sometimes they repurpose my stories for the "big kid paper" as I call it. To be honest (don't tell my boss' boss) the features department totally lacks organization. I pitched a story about Iowans who lived through the Great Depression and heard crickets from editors, until an AP piece on the topic came through and they decided they needed someone to beef it up quick with local content.
I recently pitched an idea for a series called "Good Neighbors" where we'd do short little profile/narrative stories about neighborly acts happening across the state. I think people would love that, but I haven't heard anything. Gets me frustrated, but the features staff is bare-bones right now, so they probably ignore my brilliant/annoying e-mails. You should know my co-worker wrote about Sister Sarah's in Juice last summer! She raved about you guys (and the Cheeto.)
So, in reporting on fitness challenge last week, I learned about quinoa — a grain that has all the amino acids of meat. Superfood! My friend Cara (the Sarah's fan) posted a recipe on her blog if anyone is interested: http://www.failedfeminist.com/2009/01/quinoa-with-corn-and-scallions.html
- Brianne
Pssst. Quiet. She's here.
Oh, Hi Brianne. No, we weren't talking about you.
I heard about but never saw that article about Sarah's in Juice. Any chance there is a link for it?
Quinoa was called the Food Of The Gods by pre-Columbus South Americans.
Someone will probably figure out a way to get quinoa in our gas tanks and it will get priced out of reach.
That's the lunacy of corn based ethanol. It has caused major price upswings in just about every food commodity. It and the poor economy is killing restaurants. Corn Flakes belong on the table. Not in my Chevy.
Tom
Take this for what it's worth...
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NWYxY2RkOGE2YjExNzc0OTBhMjQ5MGQ5MTUzYmNlY2Q=
O'Reilly interviews some guy who says it worked on kalid sheik mohammed.
Tom
Shares of Wyeth up over 8% in early trading today. Rumors that Pfizer may acquire it.
Any who has a credit card issued by Farmer's State Bank your account information may have been hacked. Call the bank.
Tom
Sean's not answering his phone.
We aren't terrorists, we can't equal the lowest common torture denominator because they're doing it. Our prisons have to have rules and a certain order, the world is watching.
Now, if I were Daniel Pearl's family, I might hire some thugs to search out those other thugs. What did Angelina do?
Hmmmm Wyeth's up...all those Republicans must be taking their drugs, as prescribed, of course.
Sean can't answer. He's in school. Text him though and I bet he answers. Just kidding. I'm sure Sean (Mr. Mary Geelan or whatever his name is) is busy with other customers asking the same thing.
Mary-the post was about Abu Graib, and my point remains that the worst conduct at Abu Graib was not remotely close to the hideous acts of our enemies. There is absolutely no way to approximate the 2, morally.
These guys aren't nice guys. Screw 'em.
We have been eating quinoa (sp?) at least once or twice a week for months in our family. It has a slightly bitter oil that is released once cooked. I mix it with other grains and it's nutritious and yummy.
lisa
Hmmm, I wonder what this would do to our stocks. Wyeth stocks I mean, not quinoa.
I totally believe we must not ever base our behaviors on how our enemies are behaving. Aside from defending ourselves, of course. Abu Ghraib WAS that bad. It became a recruiting tool that probably sent and is sending countless hostile, underemployed young men over the edge into a terrorist organization. And every non-terrorist who was in there now hates America with a passion. It was so needless and so counterproductive and so damaging to the US. Of course the assholes who kidnapped and murdered Pearl were cowardly murderous jerks. So we want to be like them? And then when our soldiers are captured, what do you think will happen to them? I guess we should deserve better treatment because we're the good guys. Only we're NOT ANY MORE. That's the legacy of this war. We're going to be paying for this for a long time.
Joe, we don't have to invite them to our birthday parties. We have to treat them like prisoners of war. And some of them were innocent, at least until we turned them into anti-americans.
Abu Graib - lots of mistakes.
Gitmo - not so much. When you are in a street fight there are no rules.
Imagine you are Bush. You've taken an oath to protect the country. It's your number one job.
A couple of month later you have 3000 dead citizens and you have no idea what else is coming. I might say to my spooks and generals, "Go get those guys. I don't care what you have to do, just get them."
They come back and say, "Okay, we have some of them. There's this thing called waterboarding. Makes them think they are going to drown but has no long term health risks. Do we do it?"
Answer "yes".
Tom
"When you are in a street fight there are no rules." When you have a man in custody there are rules. We signed on to them. We executed war criminals based on them. The rules (the law) are there to protect us from our own passions. Of course I would like to see the jerks that have committed some of these atrocities suffer and die. That doesn't make it right!
"When you have a man in custody there are rules."
What if it's confirmed that he's onew of the really, really bad guys. You know he's already been behind atrocities. What if this man knows something. Something that puts your comrades and citizens in danger.
He's broken "the rules". He's not in uniform. He attacked unprovoked. He's killed non military targets including kids. And his buddy is about to do the same.
Would you only ask him name, rank and serial number. Nope. It's Jack Bauer time.
Tom
How do you ever know if a confession is real if you are using torture to get it?
p
I just realized that my "what ifs" weren't what ifs to someone, somewhere. It's the real world. Not some ethereal place. This is what happened. And it had to. Our hand was forced.
Tom
"How do you ever know if a confession is real if you are using torture to get it?"
I don't know. It's not my line of work. But to those running Gitmo it is. I'm sure they can, to some degree, filter the BS. What they can't they have to run down.
Tom
The records (when they can find them) coming out of Gitmo are indicating otherwise. It's chaotic, undirected, messy. I think that with a few exceptions, nobody knew who they had there or what they were there for. People routinely got lost in piles of paperwork. The cases where you know this guy did this, and you know he knows something specific that you need to know to save lives were very few, if any. Your description of a hypothetical situation occurred seldom - I'm giving you maybe three times in the whole history of this mess so far. Yet our administration institutionalized things that our government has condemned when used by others and imprisoned hundreds of men for years with no human rights and tortured many of them. Gitmo's gotta go - it's a recruiting poster for jihadists.
"The first of Obama's three orders directed the closure of the Guantánamo prison within a year and a freeze on military commissions, the panels of military officers created to try terror suspects.
Unlike criminal proceedings in civilian courts, the commissions allow the government to introduce hearsay, evidence obtained by coercive means and secret materials that defendants and their lawyers are prohibited from seeing...
A second executive order created a special task force headed by the incoming attorney general and Defense Secretary Robert Gates that will recommend within 180 days new policies for detaining, trying, transferring or releasing suspected terrorists that adhere to U.S. and international laws.
The third order revokes the Bush administration legal re-interpretations of interrogation methods permitted under the 1949 Geneva Conventions. It requires all interrogators, including those working for the CIA, to adhere to a revised U.S. Army Field Manual. The manual and the U.S. criminal code bars techniques such as waterboarding, which simulates drowning, that's considered torture." from the Miami Herald
In general, I wouldn't consider the US Army Field Manual a liberal sob-sister rag.
I'm not equating the actions of our enemies with what happened at Abu Ghraib. They're not equal. That's irrelevant. I'm saying that what happened there was still wrong on so many fronts that it has probably cost lives, alliances, prolonged the war, and on and on. And it stemmed from a top-down culture that said the gloves are off and we don't have to obey the rules of civilization. Cowboy bullshit.
I love cowboys, by the way. George Bush and his pals are all hat and no cattle.
Sometime 2 wrongs make a right. Their huge - grotesquely huge - wrong plus, our relatively minor wrong = right.
In this I'm talking about Gitmo.
The result of this equation is saved lives in untold numbers.
Tom
So, do you find some slob who's already a lost soul? Because, I believe torture sort sets ya back, eternity-wise.
Garrigan's Spring play is "Winnie the Pooh". Joe is Christopher Robin. His girlfriend is Piglet.
"So, do you find some slob who's already a lost soul? Because, I believe torture sort sets ya back, eternity-wise."
Sounds good to me.
I'm just curious about the whole torture thing. I mean, some of the early reports were a scantily clad "dirty" woman sitting on the nut-cases lap. This was defined as torture. And since waterboarding seems to be the one that gets the most press - it doesn't hurt you. So what exactly is the torture Keith Olberman is all up in arms about?
Tom
Plus they are now holding our action figures for ransom:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4229347.stm
We need to save Cody!
I'd want to be Eeyore.
Joe as Christopher Robin. Amazing.
How's Randy's cholestorel?
p
2 wrongs don't make a right! Altho, 2 rights did make a left. Let's give this lefty a chance!
We're having an exhibit right now titled "SHock of the Read: Photorealism" and this woman called and wouldn't get off the phone and was just crazy. LIke, "what, is there gonna be blood and stuff everywhere?" Then she wanted to know everything else we have at the museum. I get at least one call like this a day.
P
That's Shock of the Real: Photorealism.
Joe3, do you know the date of the Spring play? Who is Winnie the Pooh? I'll guess J. Rosenmeyer or Anna Kollasch?
So what do you have at the museum?
Just had a low-fat subway sandwich...I'm off low-carb...I just couldn't have meat for breakfast anymore...and Mike didn't lose any weight (for the first time, on low carbs).
Everything is cancelling!! School's out, games cancelled! What's going on, the sun is shining!
We have blood and stuff.
p
Pat, do you have evening openings with wine and food? In Omaha and Chicago it's always the first Friday of every month...a person can go around to all the free openings and get perfectly satiated with art, wine and food!
Nothing is free down here. Especially not during the winter months.
p
INDEPENDENCE, Iowa – An Iowa woman has been arrested because failed to return a library book.
Thirty-nine-year-old Shelly Koontz was arrested Thursday night on a fifth-degree theft charge. She is accused of keeping "The Freedom Writers Diary," which she checked out from the public library in nearby Jesup in April.
Police say the book — which is about a high school teacher's effort to inspire students to write — is valued at $13.95.
Court records show library employees tried repeatedly to contact Koontz by phone and mail. A police officer even visited her home last September.
Officials at the Buchanan County jail say Koontz was released after posting $250 bond. No telephone listing for Koontz could be found in the Independence area.
Crimony! Obama has unleashed the fascist hounds. All this over a book?
Umm - I suppose what is going to happen now that Obama wants to coddle the enemy, is that our spooks out in the war will just outright kill suspects when encountered since they can't be detained.
Tom
Ha...cops came to her house in Sept.
I can identify with Shelly...she probably just had a few pages left...(Pat can tell you about librarians).
I'm going to quit this argument, except to say that a scantily-clad "dirty" woman sitting on a prisoner's lap is a woman who has been pimped out by her own commanders, willing or not. Come on. Is this the America you want your kids to believe in?
Since everyone else wisely keeps trying to change the subject I'm done. Go ahead and get in your last morally questionable arguments.
I was touched by the Bush girls' open letter to Sasha and Malia. Dang, it just started snowing. It reached 60 in Lincoln yesterday. Pat, is it cold there?
Florida's unemployment rate has reached 8.1% - that's pretty high.
It is 70 now but it was cold enough for Jupiter to have some frost last night. It was lows in the 30s for a couple days. The Uggs were out in full force.
p
Those "dirty women" were CIA. Professional interrogators. They were dirty because they were having their periods. For a radical Islamic man her and her dirty underwear (which apparently were waved in front of their faces) are pure torture. An embodiment of evil.
My geography is a little weak but I do have some recollection of a place called Manhattan. I think it's part of New York. Early September 2001, I think.
3000 dead. Many burned to death. Many crushed to death. Many jumped out of windows to their death. Horrific deaths all.
And we had no idea what was going to happen next. So if we offended the world by the use of these "dirty women" or the whole waterboarding thing then too bad. I would suspect they would think differently had it happened to them.
You're right. You can't thrust your morality on me.
Tom
On a better note Wyeth closed up 12% for the day.
Tom
Tom, she works at a church...you're gonna make her feel bad. (Cathy, I agree with you)
Tom...I would suggest some long conversations with Scott.
I guessed the right kid for Winnie the Pooh...maybe I should be a casting director.
By the Way...Jack Bauer wouldn't let girls do that.
Wrong. Jack tortured his brother and tried to kill his own father.
That's a fact, Jack!
Many papers today have histories of Gitmo in them. Facts: 775 men have been held there. The government called them the "most hard-core" which makes me wonder why they have released 550 of them. Then they said the ones they had left were "the worst of the worst" the day before they quietly released 20 more. Most of these men are back with their families trying to put their lives back together. One - one! - has been rearrested. All of them have been watched closely since thay were released. They were never terrorists. Several were held on "suspicion of planning to join" a terror organization. Of course, the hefty bounties paid for these accusations had nothing to do with the fact that they were arrested (sarcasm). Oh, yeah, I forgot all about those 3000 Americans killed, including my next-door neighbor's son. Sure, arrest anyone in a turban and throw'em in a hole.
OK, I'm done.
We saw "Frost/Nixon" last night and think it was VERY good. At first I thought Frank Langella's portrait of Nixon was not quite right, but he actually created a great Greek tragedy character. Real tight shots and escalating tension. Warning: no cars blowing up. I wonder if anyone who didn't live through that time would find it as compelling.
It doesn't bother me at all that almost all of the music at Obama's inauguration was lipsynced or recorded. After all, because of the frigid weather most of the instruments would have been out of tune. So the artificial beginning of the new age really doesn't matter.
What does bother me is that on Obama's third full day in office he issued an executive order that reversed our nation's ban on giving our tax dollars to international groups that perform abortions or provide abortion information. And we are not talking about abortions for rape and incest victims. We are talking about family planning--a euphemism for birth control. We will now be promoting abortions to achieve birth control. How do I know that is what he had in mind? These are his words when he signed the executive order: "For too long, international family planning assistance has been used as a political wedge issue, the subject of a back and forth debate that has served only to divide us." So I guess we should not debate about moral issues. He also said that the ban undermined family planning in undeveloped countries. So there is no doubt he favors abortion to assist in family planning. With one swipe of his pen he will participate in the deaths of more human beings in a matter of weeks than the number of service and civilian deaths in Iraq in the 5 or 6 years since that unjust war began. Dad
Belated thanks for all the birthday wishes to Nick. That is an excellent photo taken by Braden.
We had the flu bug roll through our house last week so Nick didn't have the greatest birthday. He had to stay home from school and we didn't want to have his celebration while he was sick so we put it off a day. The next day he was still sick but he wanted to get his hands on his gifts so Erin went ahead and baked his cake. He took about one bite of cake and ice cream then tore into his gifts. But his biggest gift was letting him pick out a new bike. So he had to wait a couple days for that. We picked it out on Saturday and it was cold and icy so he couldn't ride his new bike.
He liked everything he got but he wasn't feeling well and it was spread out over a couple days so I think it was all sort of anti-climatic for him.
The flu ended up laying all of us low except for Gillian. She escaped unscathed.
I agree with Cathy.
You agree that Frost/Nixon was very good?
I wanted to get Uncle Bob's address because I don't have it with us. I Googled "Mission Helpers of the Holy Savior" and it is just amazing all the information, including videos, that are available. So if you are interested in seeing scenes from the monestary in Mexico, that's how you can do it.
By the way, his address is:
Father Pablo Straub, C.SS.R.
Mission Helpers of the Holy Savior
P.O. Box 6035
Las Cruces, NM 88006
He does not encourage sending him mail in Mexico because it takes so long and not all of it gets through. A lady in Las Cruces gets his mail, deposits the checks he receives and sends correspondence to him. If you want to write to him ask the lady to FAX your letter to him. Dad
So Pfizer (PFE) is buying Wyeth (WYE). Pfizer says: "Says each outstanding share of Wyeth common stock to be converted into right to receive $33 in cash and 0.985 of a share of Pfizer common stock." This equals about $50.19 for each Wyeth share.
Also said Pfizer's quarterly dividend will be reduced to $.16 a share.
This morning Pfizer announced a bid to purchase Wyeth Drugs. the offer was for $50.19 per share, an 11% premium over it's current market price of $45.35 per share. Merry Christmas!
wait, so we'll each get $33/share of our wyeth and pretty much the same number of shares of Pfizer?
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