Today is my high school (James Monroe High School, Fredericksburg VA) class' 35th reunion. I will not be joining them this year due to cash flow problems (not to mention the price of gas).
I wish them all the best and hope they have a really good time.
I'll see them (hopefully) in 2013!
Friday, October 10, 2008
High School Reunion
Thursday, October 9, 2008
This week on the Newsweek cover
Well... looks like the GOP is pissed off because Newsweek didn't air-brush Sarah Palin's face before putting her on their cover.
I'm glad that finally, a magazine has decided to print the truth!
A reporter from MSNBC just stated that the picture was such a close up of Mrs. Palin, that not only can you see every single pore, wrinkle, and blemish, but also the start of a mustache.
Live from New York – it’s Thursday night!
Starting this Thursday, “Saturday Night Live” will be taking on primetime for the next three weeks as half-hour episodes of “SNL Thursday Night Live” run until 
the presidential election, in addition to regularly scheduled “SNL” episodes.
The show will feature an opening political sketch and the “Weekend Update” segment. So does that mean more Tina Fey? [pictured at right]
Seth Meyers, the show’s head writer and “Weekend Update” anchor, told Access Hollywood that the “30 Rock” star will probably come back to play vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin once again.
“If Sarah Palin does something to get in the news, which she’s been very consistent on doing so far, I think we’ll see Tina as well,” Seth told Access’ Mariah Menounos.
And, he said, Sarah Palin herself may make a much-rumored appearance to make fun of Fey.
“I can confirm that the door is open if she would like to come and make an appearance,” he said.
And he confirmed that the VP candidate was a fan of Fey’s impression – at least the first time she did it.
“We heard from Sarah Palin’s people that she really liked the first time that Tina played her,” he said. “We haven’t heard from her since then.”
With “SNL” successfully bringing back Fey for a number of skits, ratings have soared – and Meyers says he thanks the candidates.
“They have been kind in providing comedic fodder for us,” he said. “It’s been really fun. The best thing for us is everybody’s paying attention, 70 million people watched the vice-presidential debate last week so we can make jokes about every part of it and people got it.”
Stonehenge 'older than believed'
New findings at Stonehenge suggest its stones were erected much earlier than thought, challenging the site's conventional history.
A new excavation puts the stones' arrival at 3000 BC - almost 500 years earlier than originally thought - and suggests it was mainly a burial site.
The latest results are from a dig by the Stonehenge Riverside Project.
It is in conflict with recent research dating construction to 2300 BC and suggesting it was a healing centre.
The 2300 BC date was arrived at by carbon dating and was the major finding from an excavation inside the henge by professors Tim Darvill and Geoff Wainwright.
The latest theories, putting construction much earlier, result from an excavation at Aubrey Hole 7 - one of a circle of pits surrounding the stones - in August 2008. The researchers believe the pit probably held a standing stone.
The team suggests the 2300 BC date relates to the time when the stones were moved from the outer pits to the centre of the site.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
US debt clock runs out of digits
The US government's debts have ballooned so badly the National Debt Clock in New York has run out of digits to record the spiralling figure.
The digital counter marks the national debt level, but when that passed the $10 trillion point last month, the sign could not display the full amount.
The board was erected to highlight the $2.7 trillion level of debt in 1989. The clock's owners say two more zeros will be added, allowing the clock to record a quadrillion dollars of debt.
McCain finally lets it slip ... he is White and racist
First he would even look at Barack the first debate. Now he will not even speak to an African-American who asked the question ... topping it off with referring to Obama as "that one." I've been just hoping that it would not happen, but being a realist, have really been waiting for the "N" word to raise it's ugly head and it came close tonight. And here I thought it would be Palin who would hammer that Republican Coffin nail in.
From Joan Walsh at Salon.com:
This town hall didn't help John McCain Barack Obama dominated this debate from the very first question. John McCain fielded directly, when he condescended to the African-American questioner, a young man named Oliver, who asked how the $700 billion rescue plan passed last week would help the average American. McCain first implied that Oliver and other regular voters wouldn't know that much about Fannie Mae and and Freddie Mac, then went into the misleading Fannie/Freddie claims Andrew Leonard broke down here. Then McCain told Oliver that his plans would "help Americans like Allen ... stay in their home." Allen? Allen was the nice older white man who asked the first question. So what about Oliver? Did he not matter? Was McCain confused?
John McCain's gaffe just now wasn't so awful or inhuman, but it was equally tin-eared. He called Obama "that one." Really. Asking if the audience knew who voted for the Bush-Cheney energy bill (an Obama mistake, by the way), he pointed at Obama: "That one."
My first reaction was that it was a little racist – depersonalizing African Americans has a long rhetorical history. But I think it was more like something a cranky babysitter would say, Angry Uncle Joe, or, yes, Mr. Wilson: "You know who broke the coffee table? That one."
Awful. He can't hide his contempt for Obama.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Fed unveils plan to fund some business loans
Pressure is growing on U.S. to take new steps to stem economic crisis.
WASHINGTON - The Federal Reserve announced Tuesday a radical plan to buy massive amounts of short-term debts in a dramatic effort to break through a credit clog that is imperiling the economy.
The Federal Reserve, invoking Depression-era power under “unusual and exigent circumstances,” will buy “commercial paper,” a short-term financing mechanism that many companies rely on to finance their day-to-day operations, such as purchasing supplies or making payrolls.
The $99.4 billion daily market for this crucial financing, which relies on investors rather than banks, has virtually dried up. Most investors have become too jittery to buy paper for longer than overnight or a couple days.
The Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 is popularly remembered for stories of bankrupt investors throwing themselves to their deaths. The grandfather of criminologist and film-maker Roger Graef was one of them.
A 1980s study suggested stories of widespread suicides of bankers in 1929 was myth; Suicides in New York in month following crash lower than normal; Only eight people jumped off buildings in the city between the crash and the end of 1929. Just two were on Wall Street.
LIke a good neighbor ...
I was hoping this would be up on the MSNBC site. Good laugh. Like I've said before ... both McSame and Palin scare me to death!
China cancels US military contact
You would have thought that the news media would have had this on the nightly news!
China has cancelled military and diplomatic exchanges with the US in protest at a $6.5bn deal to supply Taiwan with arms, US officials say.
A number of senior level visits and military-to-military exchanges due before November would not go ahead, the US defence department said.
The sales include advanced interceptor missiles, Apache helicopters and submarine-launched missiles.
China regards Taiwan as its territory and opposes US military support.
China will also not participate in an exchange on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
"It's an unfortunate step," said US state department deputy spokesman Robert Wood.
Monday, October 6, 2008
The $1.75 House
Sign of the times? This house was sold on eBay for only $1.75. The state of Michigan has fallen on hard times ... and of course, McSame as left to campaign elsewhere. Guess he saw the story and just assumed it was $1.75M. The old coot!
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Gloves Coming Off In Campaign
October 5, 2008 · Palin's latest punch accuses Obama of "palling around with terrorists," while a new ad from his campaign calls McCain "erratic in crisis."
Click here for NPR's All Things Concidered audio report.
Goat 'condoms' save Kenyan herds
Maasai herdsmen in Kenya have turned to an age-old contraceptive device, the "olor", to protect their precious goat herds from an ongoing drought.
The olor is made from cowhide or a square piece of plastic, and is tied around the belly of the male goat.
It prevents the bucks from mating with the female goats. [see photo]
The herdsmen are using the device to limit the goat population and ensure there are not too many animals grazing on sparse vegetation.
"We don't want them to breed in this drought," says Mr Ole Ngoshoi Kipameto, a goat owner in Kajiado district.
— Click here for full story: 
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Blooms of Plunkett
A Banana tree in the backyard in full bloom