Power Outage!!!

Our subdivision has lost power! Hopefully Aquila (our power company) will effect quick repairs. It’s 100 degrees here in the K.C. metro, and I’m not sure how long my UPS powering my Internet equipment (or my laptop battery for that matter) will hold out.

Will Medary.com need to take it on the road to a Starbucks? Stay tuned. . .

UPDATE: That didn’t really take very long. All I had to do is post about it and five minutes later wham! our power was back.

Morning Whip, July 22, 2005

As always, click on the article title above or on “read more” below to get the entire list.

#10: Bears stop at New Mexico motel, don’t find pick-a-nick baskets
Via Yahoo News[*1] .
“He walked in, went to the pay phones, then straight toward the pool,” said desk clerk Kimbra Pacheco.
Wanted to call Boo-boo but didn’t have change? Who knows–it was a bear.

#9: 20 hamburgers you must eat before you die
from men.style.com[*2] via fark.

#8: NHL players sign contract
Via Yahoo[*3] . Looks like we’ll get some ice time this winter.

#7: Indians 10, Royals 1
Royals need to go 48-21 to finish .500, 31-38 to avoid 100 losses. Related: Suspensions handed down[*4] following brawl in Detroit. Manager Bobby Bell to sit out one game, Pitcher Runelvys Hernandez out ten games.

#6: Marketers may stop calling dead people
Via Yahoo News[*5] . How very thoughtful of them.

#5: Naked tickler at large in Florida
Nude guy fondles[*6] old ladies’ feet. Front runner for Weirdo Of The Year.

#4: House re-authorizes Patriot Act
House votes 257-171[*7] to renew controversial anti-terrorism law.

#3: John Howard defines terrorism
Video at Trey Jackson’s site[*8] .

#2: London police in the Underground shoot man
Via This Is London. [*9]
Scotland Yard said: “We can confirm that just after 10am today armed officers shot a male at Stockwell underground station.”

#1: “The only time local stations or newspapers cover a local Marine or Soldier is if they die in combat. That is an outrage.”
J.D. Johannes does something about it–grabs a camera and a laptop and heads to Iraq to cover soldiers from Kansas City. Story at Tech Central Station[*10] . Johannes site is here[*11] .

Morning Whip, July 21, 2005

As always, click on the article title above or on “read more” below to get the entire list.

#10: Shuttle launch planned for Tuesday
Combination of wire grounding and electromagnetic interference thought by NASA engineers to be source[*1] of sensor problems. #9: China severs yuan link to dollar
Apparently this [*2] is a good thing.

#8: Google maps the moon
Zoom into the lowest level[*3] .

#7: Bruschi to miss 2005 NFL season
With my favorite last name in sports (Brew-ski!), New England linebacker who suffered stroke will sit out the coming season[*4] .

#6: Royals 5, Indians 3
This year, a two-game win streak[*5] is cause for celebration. Royals need to go 48-22 to finish .500, 31-39 to avoid 100 losses.

#5: Plame game update
Dick Morris[*6] :
Rove did not call Time magazine’s Matt Cooper. Cooper called him. He did not mention Valerie Plame’s name. He may not have even known it. He had no intent to reveal her identity. The context of the conversation was that Rove was trying to disabuse Cooper of the impression that CIA Director George Tenet had been the moving force in choosing former Ambassador Joe Wilson to investigate the nuclear dealings reported to be going on in Niger.

#4: Firefox, Thunderbird updates now available
Article here[*7] .
Firefox download here[*8] .
Thunderbird download here[*9] .

#3: French journalists investigate blogs, get their heads handed back to them on a platter
by the bloggers at Little Green Footballs[*10] .

#2: Sudan apparently “wants some” from U.S.
Sudanese security forces rough up U.S. diplomats and reporters[*11] traveling with Secretary of State Rice. From the article:

“Diplomacy 101 says you don’t rough your guests up,” Rice senior adviser Jim Wilkinson had said earlier as he and reporters traveling with Rice faced off with guards at the ultra-high-security residence of Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir.

#1: Security alert at London Underground stations
Arrest at #10 Downing Street shown on Fox News. BBC is blogging it here[*12] .

You Too Can Be An Activist

Thanks to Iowahawk[*1] , anyone can now protest any future Supreme Court nominee, no matter what name, gender, or ethnic affiliation that nominee may have. A true public service.

Hat tip: Little Green Footballs. An excerpt:

Make no mistake: no one should be fooled by the administration’s public relations efforts or ___JOHN ROBERTS___ ‘s seemingly “moderate” appearance. ___JOHN ROBERTS___ has a record that suggests that ___HE___ would deny women the right to reproductive choice, stop important life-saving medical stem cell research by extending the Patriot Act to draft their unwanted fetuses, and turn these conscripted fetuses over to dangerous tax-supported ‘Creationist’ religious indoctrination laboratories. The Supreme Court is a lifetime appointment, and America needs to know whether ___JOHN ROBERTS___ supports the GOP’s secret plan of a Rush Limbaugh Jesus army of unwanted, unquestioning fetus zombies programmed to urinate on the Korans of Guantanamo detainees.

Entertainers in Politics

Reading Victor Davis Hanson is the intellectual equivalent of splashing very cold water on your face.

In his article titled Elegant Nonsense[*1] , this quote regarding the generally prevalent view in the entertainment industry of George W. Bush’s intellectual capacity:

In fact, what do a talented Richard Gere, Robert Redford and Madonna all have in common besides loudly blasting the current administration? They either dropped out of, or never started, college. Cher may think George Bush is “stupid,” but she — not he — didn’t finish high school.

Morning Whip, July 20, 2005

Special mention: “Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed.”[*1]
As always, click on the article title above or on “read more” below to get the entire list.

#10: Scotty beams up: James Doohan passes away.
James Doohan, who created the archtypical engineer character “Scotty” in the original Star Trek TV series, has died, according to a Fox News report.

#9: Shuttle engineers completing tests on empty fuel tank
NASA may need to perform tanking test[*2] to identify sensor problem.

#8: Parrot understands concept of zero
28-year-old parrot[*3] knows 50 different objects, seven colors, five shapes.

#7: Royals 4, Indians 0
Utility infielder Graffanino dealt to Boston, Royals get hard-throwing minor league pitcher and fast, good-hitting AAA outfielder in return. Royals need to go 49-22 to finish .500, 32-39 to avoid 100 losses.

#6: Daylight Savings Time in U.S. to be extended by two months
Canadians concerned.[*4]

#5: “We’re witnessing a civil war that’s taking place in Islam.”
hat tip Chrenkoff[*5] . British writer Ian McEwan is interviewed in der Spiegel[*6] .

#4: Iraqi draft constitution expected in “days”
Chairman says constitution will be ahead of August 15 deadline.[*7]

#3: London back to normal: Mayor blames us for bombings
If you drive a car, you’re the problem, according to London mayor Ken Livingstone[*8] : “”I think we have just had 80 years of Western intervention in predominantly Arab lands because of the Western need for oil.”

#2: Afghanistan’s Karzai takes hard line against hate madrases
Afghan President[*9] says some Islamic schools are preaching hate and need to be shut down.

#1: Introducing John G. Roberts
OpinionJournal[*10] likes him. So does Michelle Malkin[*11] . Daily Kos[*12] resents the lack of a “paper trail” (what did the left expect after inventing “Borking?”) They also are offended that this has taken valuable rant-space away from the Plame Game.

Go shop at a Costco near you!

Article from the Houston Chronicle via Fark[*1] :

Costco’s average pay, for example, is $17 an hour, 42 percent higher than its fiercest rival, Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club. And Costco’s health plan makes those at many other retailers look Scroogish. One analyst, Bill Dreher of Deutsche Bank, complained last year that at Costco “it’s better to be an employee or a customer than a shareholder.”

What a thought! Treat your employees well, and they’ll treat your customers well. Nah, it’ll never catch on.