Insert Trite Metaphor about a Corral Here

Posted on April 2, 2004 in Roundup

It’s politics Friday!

I did this early because I got bored in the afternoon. Here is what I discovered/stole in the course of my weekly rumblings through my blog links:

Personal

• Help Stu Get a Job
  
• Jaybird heard that his interim position ends at the end of April.
  
• Victoria writes:

  I have to train Team India. This is a group of programmers who will work in India on our product, taking jobs away from American programmers because they are willing to work for 1/4th. or less, of our salaries. And I feel like I’m going to throw up. And then I feel worse for hating people that are only doing what they need to do also. Individually, these are not bad people. Individually, each of them has a right to have a job. But as a group, they are robbing my profession of dignity.

• Robert Brady wrote about coping with an intellectual frog in his house.
  
• Bittersweet Resonance talks about her addiction to soap operas:

  I laughed when I read someone write on a board yesterday that posting about how much they hated the show was a kind of therapy. anyone that says that is probably in need of therapy. I know I was. it’s simply an indulgence of negativity. and I sometimes think the internet is a dangerous tool for allowing people to indulge their problems to such a unconstructive degree.

• Pam writes about coming back to America after twenty years in Japan:

  In Japan I had become sort of like a human bonsai, a little tree twisted and manipulated to look like a replica of something bigger and more natural.

• Maria is heading off for yet another punting regatta.
  
• Crazy Tracy celebrated the rebirth of her blog by telling us the story of her dog:

  The story of Chooch’s birth is sketchy, but what is known is that his father (a full-bred champion Rottweiler) jumped a fence and had sex with his mother (a full-bred champion Shar-Pei). This is information I learned fairly recently and finally explains why Chooch was “cropped and docked” (had ears and tail clipped). The owners of both dogs hadn’t realized what had happened until a few weeks after the twelve puppies were born. They gave all the pups away but got stuck with Chooch (who was the runt), until my friend at work said, “You should come over after work and see the puppy we’ve got staying with us” (she actually took the dog because the owners were going to take him to the pound).

• Frances has arrived at his new digs and got a glimpse of the Queen of Sweden.
  
• Kris is celebrating the coming of Spring.

Culture

• Allison issues a Microchip Alert:

  the scanners used to detect AVID and HomeAgain chips CANNOT read or detect the presence of the 134-kHz chips currently being implanted at Banfield pet hospitals. Thus, should a pet that has been chipped with the 134-kHz chip become lost, that animal may not be able to be reunited with its owner, and could be adopted out or euthanized, depending on shelter circumstances. Pet owners are paying for a procedure with the expectation that it will provide peace of mind about the return of their lost animal, but in reality this is not the case.

• Meg used the occasion of Cesar Chavez Day to give everyone a lesson in html. Not inappropriately, she used the color tomato in her example.
  
• Raven writes about Linux security problems:

  Linux evangelists are a funny lot. Some of them wave their penguins and shout “Down With Bill!” and go to anti-Microsoft rallies looking like they’re dressed for Halloween. Still, others approach something closer to normality, but still believe that Linux is both secure and revolutionary when, in reality, it is neither.

• Rob seems assuaged by the choice of Sway Calloway as Bob Edward’s replacement as the Voice of NPR.
  
• Loren has been creating photos of flowers and haiku.
  
• Is your name Michael Doss? Michael Doss is looking for you.
  
• Treesong is humming The Greatest American Hero
  
• Nancy discovered that she can get out of a ticket by claiming to be a VIP.

Politics

• Randy Paul talks about Castro doing the spin. Seems like the world’s most famous cigar-smoker can do it better than Bush.
  
• Joan of Arc takes the New York Times to task for its “Have pity on the poor death squad leaders” stance in recent editorials about Haiti.
  
• Kathryn defines mercenary for the clueless.
  
• Billy marked the 600th U.S. casualty in Iraq.
  
• George announced a miracle to the world:

  Bush has apologized for failing to keep his promise to be a uniter and not a divider and has promised to listen to diverse opinions. He has also apologized to Richard Clarke for not taking him more seriously when it meants saving lives and regrets the egregious smear attacks that his underlings have unleashed on Clarke.

• Kimber speaks of a recent gun accident:

  An infant is dead, and it’s NO ONE’s fault. Not the lady who did it, it was just an accident, not the parent’s cause they have a right to own a gun and do anything they want to with it. Not the gun makers, hey they just sell the things, what people do with them after that is their own business. And we all sit around saying “We can’t step on anyone’s rights!!!” “Personal Responsibility!!” And another child goes in the ground. For nothing.

Religion

• Blaugustine writes in an open missive to Mel Gibson:

  Did you imagine that a Kill Bill – sorry, kill Jesus – blood fest was going to inspire people to love one another and forgive their enemies? Did you think it would make Christians more Christian and unbelievers into believers?
  
  
  Well Mel, if you’re interested in credibility, here’s what you should do:
  Give all the money you will make from this travesty and its merchandise to the poor, the hungry, the weak, the innocent, the oppressed, the persecuted, the tortured and to all those who suffer because of fanaticism, of whatever religious or political persuasion.

• Deborama writes:

  When I was a vegetarian, I began to question the image of the “Good Shepherd”. It occurred to me, as inevitably it must to those who are trying to live a life of non-harming, that a shepherd is not really a model of compassionate care.

• Jeremy found an inane use for technology:
  

  This guy wants to start the Apocalypse and summon the Messiah by projecting a holographic Temple over the Dome of the Rock.

• IreneQ recounts going back to where she came from:

  I grew up in a Methodist church, and, whilst I can’t remember being discontented there, when I go back now I find myself dreading service there and looking at things with a jaundiced eye. Compared to the vibrant life and joy found in the charismatic churches I’ve been to in the city, my hometown church seems frozen in time, exactly the same as it was 15 years ago when I was 11 — stagnant and merely going through the motions.

• doug was pleased to find a copy of Kyoka’s The Teaching of the Buddha in the same drawer as a Gideon Bible until he read what a “Christian” had scratched inside.

• Jody wondered if people would see the hand of God in this.
  
• Rae thanks God for helping her open jars.

Web Links

• Ten Things You Don’t Know about Terrorism
  
• A man who should know talks about how Bush is much worse than Nixon
  
• Top 100 April Fools Hoaxes of All Time
  
• Make your own movie marquee (in German)
  
• Air America
  
• Bagdad Theater
  
• Demotivators – Increasing success by lowering expectations
  
• Conservatives for Kerry

Missing Bloggers

• Give Love: Get Love
  
• John R. Pierce

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