First, NPR did an audio story direct from a pig farm in Virginia. Yes, they put Ruby Red lipstick on a black-and-white pig. It was a piece that left much to the imagination, and perhaps it’s better that way. Because apparently now it’s a trend: news organizations are falling all over themselves putting lipstick on pigs. Here’s the link to the Chicago Tribune video (yeah, they do video on their website. And they prove, unequivocally, that there’s really no amount of artful makeup techniques or products that can improve the appearance of a porker. With the possible exception of a…
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When I flipped my desk calendar over, there it was. “Patriot Day.” No, it’s “Remembrance Day.” Enough with the posturing and the framing and the spinning already. We remember family, friends, colleagues, total strangers, and maybe one or two saints. Many were not American – workers at Windows on the World, business travelers from many lands, and maybe some tourists. We remember them too. Please, let’s not Hallmark this day with cynical, politically motivated labels and imagery. This is a solemn day of remembrance.
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Anderson Cooper 360: Blog Archive – Spending seven Septembers hijacking my religion back « – Blogs from CNN.com A beautiful and heartfelt essay from a Muslim pacifist civil rights lawyer, who with his Islamic brothers and sisters wants to peacefully hijack his religion back from the extremists.
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Provo police on alert for peeping Toms – Salt Lake Tribune Apparently BYU, the college of the Utah faithful, suffers a plague of pervos every fall when students return, move into housing or apartments, and don’t know enough to close the curtains. Peeping toms are a perennial problem in prissy Provo. Best comment from the Trib website: “Abstinence makes the church grow fondlers.”
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Daily Herald | Hoffman Estates starts stocking up on salt tonight Breaking news: Chicago-area residents should expect a “very cold period” after Thanksgiving. That’s according to the winter weather projections in the 2009 edition of the “The Old Farmer’s Almanac,” in stores in next month. Yep, my village is debating the cost of road salt, in August, because the Old Farmer’s Almanac predicts a cold winter. Well, they did run out of salt last winter…
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Yes they can: Chicagoans get entry to speech at last minute — chicagotribune.com DENVER – The group of Chicago people who took a bus to the Democratic National Convention without credentials will get to see Sen. Barack Obama accept the nomination for president after all. They will be the ones in the white T-shirts showing people to their seats. Yay! They made it in! I’m so glad for them. It was one of the small stories reported in the Chi-Trib about the convention that caught my attention.
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So was Best Western’s system hacked – and if so how? | Technology | guardian.co.uk We’re currently staying in a BW chain hotel in Dublin, and we certainly hope we’re okay – that is, David is able to keep an eye on accounts from here (never you mind how). But this news of a German Best Western having ALL their client records from the last year hacked is not good.
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Daily Herald | Duckworth blasts McCain over military policy The former congressional candidate painted McCain as weak on veteran issues, despite his service as a Vietnam War veteran and POW. Duckworth touted Obama’s efforts at boosting GI health care and benefits. Duckworth now is head of the state’s veteran’s affairs department. She recently has been mentioned as a possible successor to Obama in the U.S. Senate should he win. Here we are in Dublin, Ireland, logging in to check the political news, and find this news item in my “local news” section of Google News. We voted for Tammy when…
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Courtesy of The Guardian: a series of 9 pictures (so far) showing the leader of the free world doing what he does best when traveling – looking like a total dumbass and embarassing everyone. For some reason, the link to the Guardian is messing up – probably need to turn off a plugin that grabs titles.
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Economist’s View: Paul Krugman: Know-Nothing Politics Another good phrase: “the party of stupid.”