i m N s h o

Bush Secretly Lifted Some Limits on Spying in US after 9/11, Officials Say Bush Vows to Continue Spying on Americans Cheney Defends Domestic Spying Cheney says the wiretaps were "part of a concerted effort to rebuild presidential powers weakened in the 1970s as a result of the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War." Perhaps it was fear of abuse such as this that led to those "weakened" powers in the first place, Mr. Cheney. Rice Fails to Clarify US View on Torture I'm fascinated by the term "extraordinary renditions". Websters defines rendition as "obsolete" and "the act or result of rendering ." Click on that rendering link and you'll find several meanings, but the first definition is "to melt down… to extract by melting… to treat so as to convert into industrial fats and oils…" which seems FAR too appropriate when referring to an action used to facilitate torture. None of the other meanings seem quite accurate in te

Then there's this guy, who looks to be on the opposite end of the grinch scale from my previous post's moron . CNN.com - Neighbors' yards cleared to create 'Snowzilla' - Dec 20, 2005

I was going to post some kind of cynical rant about the new spirit of Christmas, but really, this just says it all. CNN.com - Murderous Santa display draws stares - Dec 14, 2005 And may I just say… "bullshit": "It is a religious holiday, but they have turned it into a business. And it shouldn't be," he said. "We didn't put it up to offend anybody." Don't you just have to love (and by that, I mean detest) this kind of contemptible asshole?

…then cats must be teenagers. First off, I have to admit I enjoy making that "dogs are like children" comparison if for no other reason than I know it must annoy at least some of the people out there currently raising kids. But trust me, the parallels are amusing, if a bit scary. Take jealousy, for instance. We have two dogs, a male and a female. The female is a German Shepherd mix, a couple of years old. The male is a Rottweiler mix and he's about 9 months old. We got Athos (the Rottweiler) first, then Nala adopted us a week later. And we've been seeing jealousy issues between the two almost from day one. I'll take them out for a walk and, when we get back, Athos will race over to Nala's space to grab the bone she's left behind, then gleefully trot over to his space, where he's already got a bone. She'll come prowling into the house, find a toy he's been playing with, and take it out into the yard, stepping over the toys already littering the

I am NOT a huge System of a Down fan. Which is really something of an understatement, since I used to fall over myself trying to get to the radio fast enough to change the station when their first single was in heavy rotation on KROQ. So it's not terribly surprising that I'm not particularly taken by their latest work. But when the chorus for " Lonely Day " comes blasting at me with "…the most loneliest day of my life…" I'm whipped right back to "QUICK! CHANGE THE STATION!" mode. I realize how tragically un-hip this makes me sound (and how tragically un-hip "tragically un-hip" sounds, as well as how much I've overused both "tragically" and "hip/un-hip" in the past few days) but seriously… "the most loneliest day"? I notice that the song isn't called "Most Loneliest Day" or even "Loneliest Day". Makes my ears bleed, just hearing it. (*sigh* Yes, more hyperbole. Get over it.)  

Not that I really believe that. In 2415, There are Still Bad Hair Days I think the problem with this NY Times review of Aeon Flux is obvious in the first few sentences when the reviewer shows that he's not terribly interested in this film, nor particularly conversant in SF tropes (yes, there's that word again) nor, apparently, willing to put any effort into watching this film in order to understand it. And this is not a film that entails a lot of effort TO understand, if you ask me. (I just remembered that you have to register with the Times to read their reviews, so to spare you that annoyance, allow me to quote a pertinent example for you: Why - and, for that matter, how - did Sophie Okonedo replace her feet with hands? Who knew that garter belts, tulle snoods and spandex jumpsuits would come back into fashion in the 25th century? Does Frances McDormand live somewhere in Charlize Theron's digestive tract, and is that why she didn't comb her hair?… But I'm supp