Category Archives: News

Is It Still Safe To Go Back In The Water ~ Morning thoughts

Posted on by
Reply

Yesterday I arrived at the doctor’s office in time for my appointment, to be met with the news that she had an emergency and would need to reschedule. However, they did know some of what she wanted done for testing, and would I have a seat and hold out my arm.

After feeling similar to a pin cushion, my NEW appointment is for tomorrow – although if there is a cancellation, they will try and get me in today. They also had some pills to take that would help me sleep and not spend all my time coughing. Did they work? Yes, they did.

I will know more tonight, and even more after tomorrow. And, trust me, I am going to be playing “sardines” (see last post) and you will know what’s going on.

This morning I was going through some news sites — and I ran across this wonderful news item. My only question? What else could they use the batter for? …

(June 26, 2007)SCOTT CITY, Missouri – Police said inmates used pancake batter and toothpaste to cover a hole they made to allow a female inmate to slide into the next cell and join a male inmate. Now steel plates are being added to the Missouri jail’s interior walls.

The hole at the Scott City Jail was discovered this weekend, said police Chief Don Cobb. He said inmates removed a block from the wall, after making a digging tool with a nail, a wire from a light fixture and a toothbrush.

The mixture of pancake batter and toothpaste looked like mortar, he said.

Prisoners will stay in a county jail until a security check is completed at the city building.

The city jail’s exterior walls already are reinforced with steel to prevent inmates from escaping, Cobb said.

“Unless they can smuggle in an arc welder, they aren’t getting through that,” he said.

An Afternoon Case Of WHAT??? ~

Posted on by
Reply

As I was digging around today (OK, surfing around) two absolutely amazing little pieces of news caught my eye … the first an invasion, the second a complete lack of …. well, you decide what is lacking…..

Imagine reading this on a headline service this morning: (or being a news “puller”)

Yes, it’s a screen shot of an actual posted headline. However, before anyone feels that they need to start looking for some kind of shelter – the truth is quite amusing – and far more mundane.

Once upon a time, there was a training exercise … and a few soldiers got lost in the process.

The second story caused some clean-up of my monitor and keyboard from the coffee spilled (OK, spewed) on them as a result of this little tale.

Remember awhile ago when Boston was shut down over a publicity campaign? I thought you might. If you remember, the offending hardware that caused so much Police panic were a Light-Brites cast around for people to find and (if you ever watch Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim) recognize.

It seems that today** Wednesday, the City of Boston placed traffic counters around. You know, those identifable boxes attached by chain to a pole with a small cable running across the road that counts the cars as they drive over it.

I’ll let Wonkette tell the tale:

Well, the brave anti-terrorism officials of Boston most certainly do not know of these common devices — so they shut down the city today, again, and blew up the traffic counter. You know, the traffic counter the City of Boston was paying for ….

(Article and picture here)

Now that I have cleaned up the keyboard and monitor – I can go back to feeling safer in knowing that any car I ride in Boston is going to go uncounted.

Why do people make up news, when there’s so much really interesting (insert any other word here) true news to look at?

**edited correction of date

Have I Lost My Mind~ Late Night Rambling (ranting?)

Posted on by
Reply

Based on the news I looked at over the last several days, one would have the impression that the only things that truly mattered in the world were: 1) Anna Nicole Smith and/or 2) Britney Spears. I was absolutely stunned to realized that while some major events and a scary event were occurring…people were concerned about why Britney cut her hair (Lice? (ewwww) Her soon to be ex-husband’s threat to use it for drug analysis? Because she wanted to make a statement?) and whether and why she’s been in and out of rehabs – usually lasting only 24 hours.

In the meantime – seeming unnoticed by most news organizations:

Remember when Republicans ran Congress and everybody was so corrupt and then the midterms happened and the Democrats swept in with a bold plan to have ethics and all that? Well, they were just kidding.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has a great vacation planned for May: He’s going to a fancy golf & beach resort in Puerto Rico where people get “sensually awakened.” And he’s taking a planeload of lobbyists … enough to fill 137 luxury hotel suites. Doesn’t that sound nice?

But unlike Tom DeLay’s unethical golf trip to Scotland with Jack Abramoff, Steny’s seaside lobbyist orgy is completely okay because the lobbyists aren’t paying Hoyer himself — they’re paying Hoyer’s PAC
–www.wonkette.com

My local stations started their newcasts with extensive coverage of the battle over Anna Nicole Smith’s body and baby. There seems to be great concern over the fact that her body seems to be deteriorating sooner than expected. Personally, I always thought that’s what bodies did – but based on the news reports, I could be wrong.

However, in the meantime – no one except PBS seems to have noticed:

Innocent Americans’ data is being swept up and stored thanks to the use of the “full pipe” data gathering technique. Second, that the government’s Total Information Awareness Program – which was “killed” but never defunded – was being used to build domestic spying facilities around the country.

I caught PBS’s NOW program last Friday by chance, and I’m glad I did. They have resources not available to this lowly blogger. What PBS discovered will chill your bones. Yes, data on innocent Americans is being intercepted and stored. Additionally, more whistleblowers have come forward to establish the existence of another secret spy room on AT&T’s network, built post 9-11.

The key findings in PBS’s report:

–The government is intercepting most emails sent domestically.

–AT&T is collecting most emails and sharing them with the government, specifically the NSA (this is backed up by Klein’s documents).

–The NSA spy room at AT&T’s San Francisco facility is only accessible to the NSA and AT&T employees cleared by the NSA.

–The NSA’s interest seems to be in MAE WEST, *the* major hub of American and international internet traffic on the West Coast.

–The device installed in San Francisco is capable of intercepting 10 GIGBYTES of data per second.
In layman’s terms, that means it could go through all the information in all the books in the Library of Congress in 15 minutes.
–www.crooksandliars.com

At least, after digging through a lot of news blogs/sites, I know I haven’t lost my mind – I just, perhaps, have a different outlook as to what is important. Or what I feel I should be concerned about.