This is Disgusting

I've read some pretty damn spooky articles in the paper before, but this one tops them all. I heard about this article in the NY Times on CNN this morning, so decided to go read it and boy - this is rough. If you want to learn a bit more about sex traffic in the USA and Mexico and elsewhere (and you probably should be aware), , then you will learn more here than you want to. After reading this, I think if I had a daughter, I'd chain her to my wrist at all times of the day. Makes one want to go out on a crusade to save these girls. A sick picture of society.

Dean Given Raw Deal by Press

I think the Press has run totally amuck with Howard Dean's war whoop after the Iowa caucus. I think Hardball with Chris Matthews has run this a 1000 times. I think this is grossly unfair to Dean. Sure, he went over the top a bit, but he was talking to a bunch of kids, some 3500 of them late at night and was trying to keep them inspired after a tough loss. . Was it not the smartest thing to do? Surely not and he admitted that on Primetime with Dianne Sawyer, but at the same time, he admitted that he plays it from the heart. Personally that would make me trust him more than it would someone who was cold, dry and unemotional. I heard a lot of comments that this rhetoric after the caucus was "angry". How could anyone describe it as "angry"? I saw it a 1000 times myself and there is no way it could be described an angry. Overenthusiastic - yes, but who the hell made these reporters God? We should all be entitled to a slight goof now and then without being mercilessly hounded by the media. I thought Howard and his wife looked great on Dianne Sawyer's show. Dianne kept badgering away as well and I was disappointed in her. I think Howard makes a lot of misstatements, gets flustered at times and I'm not sure he would be the best candidate for President, but he sure as hell didn't deserve this treatment. And I thought he and his wife had the right values - it's obvious they have a good marriage. You'd get my vote Howard if you just tell them to shove it where the sun don't shine.  

Robert's got it right

Marriage Aid that Misses the Point Another waste of money - I thought Republicans were supposed to be for smaller govt? Ha! And check out this boondoggle of spending initiatives Among the most controversial provisions, as a whole, are nearly 8,000 "earmarks," or special funding measures, for projects in the home states of representatives and senators. These come to $10.7 billion, according to the watchdog group, Taxpayers for Common Sense, which advocates reduced government spending Just a few of it's goodies - $50 million for an indoor rain forest in Iowa, $1.8 million for exotic pet disease research in California, $200,000 for recreation improvements in the city of North Pole, Alaska. As John McCain said, "The sum of these political indulgences is enormous and growing and amounts to the theft of our future and the theft of our economic recovery."  

MyIE2

Noticed that my fav web browser (MYIE2) was topic of discussion on TechTv today. Ol' Leo was suitably impressed. For those of you who haven't tried this out, go to MyIE2 and download. Just install the basic MYIE2 - skip all the plugins they offer or at least the UCMore one. The others are OK. UCMore is suspected of spyware. Along with tabs (the best damn thing that ever happened to browsers), it has mouse gestures (very handy) and also allows URL aliases. What are those? Let's say you have a long url like the one here - www.mountaintalk.blogspot.com. Well, you can assign for instance the letter m for that URL. Then instead of typing in the whole URL to go to the web site, you just type "m" and hit enter. Pretty slick. You can set up as many of those as you like. Just one of many, many features with this browser add-on - the options are extensive. It is frequently updated. And it's FREE. Other web browsers sometimes stumble on certain sites because they are not set up for IE. This gets around it because it uses IE as it's core engine with all the extra goodies you really want.  

Another evening of BS

If you had the chance to watch the Pres's State of the Union, then you must have wondered what State of the Union he was talking about. The facts behind all his statements are dramatically different than the reality he proposes. What is sad is that many average Americans don't read enough or care enough to understand that his statements are simply disingenous. What I find amusing is that I recall all the talk about how successful Bush was in Texas in the State House getting both parties to work together and how he would be able to do that as well in Washington. They must be smoking some bad stuff down there in Texas, cause if this guy could bring people together, than I'm ready for the loony bin. This guy is leading America down the path of ruin and many of us had better wake up!

On a more pleasant note, watched Rabbit-Proof Fence last night on DVD. Would give it 3.8 out of 5 and for the background info, I'd give it a 5 out of 5. Movie was good and informed me of a situation I only knew vaguely about, but the background info on the movie and how it was made and how these young actresses were selected was outstanding. If I had a life to live over again, I'd probably have done something in movies - cinematography or something along those lines. I find it fascinating to see how all these talents come together to produce a movie.  

Atkins Hasn't Really Changed

Media and Docs get it wrong again I have to admit that I see this happen all the time. All these so-called "experts" that read these diet books and then write articles on them, don't really read what the guy has written. They pick up some snippets of conversation somewhere and then proclaim them as truth. It must be particularly frustrating to folks like Atkins,Sears,Weil,etc... to always have to try to play down these inaccuracies.  

Kerry,Edwards strong winners in Iowa

Well, I must say, I'm pleased with these results. My two picks for people I'd choose and in the order I'd choose them. Not totally surprised - I think people are looking at "electability" and Kerry in particular presents that image, and I think Edwards is respected for keeping his fight above the "negative campaigning". Nothing against Howard Dean, but I'm afraid he just doesn't come across that well, except as "angry" and people want more than that in a leader. And he appears quite stiff when contrasted with Kerry or Edwards. It was surprising in Iowa with the huge turnout that the "organized" campaigns of Dean and Gephardt didn't do better - that left all the pundits scratching their heads. It showed the people were expressing their personal opinions about the candidates and actually turned these caucuses into a primary. The unions that supported Gephardt got slam dunked which had to be a shocker for them. The Vets were a definite plus for Kerry and will be as well when the campaign turns towards S.Carolina and Florida and other southern States, where many Vets reside.

Now it will get interesting in NH, for sure. Will Kerry get a bounce out of this? With Clark in NH, could be quite a 4 way slugfest, assuming Dean still has some fight left. Looks like Gephardt will drop out, Kucinich might as well, and I don't think Lieberman has a prayer anymore either, so we're down to 4. Stay tuned. 

Movies

Been watching a lot of movies again. Started up the addicting Netflix thing to amuse myself during sleepy winter months. Will probably regret this! Did have the chance to watch 2 excellent and widely divergent films lately. Winged Migration was absolutely fabulous. I'd recommend getting the DVD to see the extra info on how they filmed this, which is practically as amazing as the film. Definitely a family pic - no R rating on this beauty. You don't need to be into birdwatching to admire this movie. It's quite interesting that the Academy of Motion Pictures awarded "Bowling for Columbine" the Oscar for Best Picture over this film. Nothing against that film, which I also found well worth watching, but it pales (imho) in comparison to this feat of movie making.

Switching to a wholly different arena, I can also recommend Bloody Sunday . If you want to get right in the middle of the march that ended up so tragically and started "the Troubles" in Ireland, this is the film for you. Interesting, in that Brits produced it, yet it definitely shows you that the Brits ran amuck on this given day. I was surprised to see that Brits produced it and didn't pick up on that till watching the extra info on the movie - I would have sworn Irish Catholics would have produced it. A riveting movie and highly recommended. (Note - the "f" word is a favorite word of the Irish, so if it bothers you, I warned you!)  

Pickering

A good editorial in the Washington Post:(ya gotta watch ol' GW - he's a slippery fella)

Washington Post Editorial:
End Run for Mr. Pickering
Sunday, January 18, 2004

PRESIDENT BUSH'S decision Friday to install controversial judicial nominee Charles W. Pickering Sr. on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit using a recess appointment is yet another unwarranted escalation of the judicial nomination wars. We have lamented some of the attacks on Mr. Pickering, but his record as a federal trial judge is undistinguished and downright disturbing, and Senate Democrats are reasonable to oppose his nomination. Installing him using a constitutional end run around the Senate only inflames passions. The right path is to build consensus that nonpartisanship and excellence are the appropriate criteria for judicial selection.



The recess appointment -- the president's power to temporarily install federal officers without Senate confirmation -- is a uniquely bad instrument for federal judges. Judges are supposed to be politically independent. Yet Mr. Pickering will be a controversial nominee before the Senate as he considers cases and will lose his job in a year if he is not confirmed. Even his supporters should understand that he will be subject to the political pressures from which judges are supposed to be insulated.

We don't rule out the recess appointment in all circumstances. At times judges have commanded such uniform support that presidents have used the power to get them in office quickly, leaving the formality of confirmation for later. We supported, moreover, President Bill Clinton's lame-duck recess appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit of Roger Gregory, who, like Mr. Pickering, was held up in the Senate. But there was a big difference: Mr. Gregory was not controversial. His nomination, in fact, was eventually resubmitted to the Senate by none other than President Bush. It was held up initially because of a long-standing dispute over appointments to that court, not because of any concerns about the nominee himself. There was reason to hope that Mr. Gregory would be confirmed -- as, indeed, he was. In this case, Mr. Bush has used a recess appointment for someone who cannot, on his merits, garner a vote of confidence from the Senate and who has no prospect of confirmation in the current Congress.

We don't support the filibuster of nominees, but the answer to Democratic obstruction cannot be the appointment or installation of temporary judges who get to hear a few cases over a few months, all the while looking over their shoulders at the senators who oppose them. The great damage the judicial nomination wars threaten over the long term is to erode judicial independence, to make judges constantly aware of how they might have to answer to the Senate for a given opinion. Using the recess appointment to place Mr. Pickering on the 5th Circuit has made that danger into a reality.  

Hubble Telescope to Die

Sad day for the space telescope. Needing repairs but with new space initiatives now taking precedence, it will not get those and thus will become another piece of space junk in a few years. But it did reveal amazing things for us: Using images from the craft, scientists have determined the age of the universe, about 13.7 billion years, and discovered that a mysterious energy, called the dark force, is causing all of the objects in the universe to move apart at an accelerating rate. This force is still poorly understood

Images from Hubble glimpsed galaxies back to a point just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang (search), thought to be the explosive beginning of the universe. Astronomers have found that galaxies and clusters of galaxies formed much earlier than theorists had expected. This suggests that planets where life was possible could have formed as early as about 12 billion years ago. The solar system, which includes the sun and Earth, is much younger, about 5 billion years old.

For more info on why we are not fixing it, head here  

Iowa Heating Up!

Looks like the Iowa Caucus is a dead heat between Dean, Kerry,Gephart and Edwards. Should be interesting come Monday night. I am still of the opinion, that Kerry would be the best candidate in a one on one debate with GW. He'd shred the guy like a rapier going through cheese. Kerry has that Clinton like mind. Dean, I'm afraid appears often uncomfortable and I'm afraid he'd blow it with one insensitive remark or another. Gephardt is too strident and so is Edwards at times, although I like Edwards and he'd probably be my second pick. I thought it was interesting that a caller to the Larry King show ,when Ann Richards was a guest, was concerned that Howard Dean just didn't have the persona that comes across well on TV to be elected by the general populace. Ann, who now supports Dean, sorta stumbled on that one - she did admit that he needed to throw a bit of levity into the mix now and then and not be so serious. But I think the caller is representative of the average American voter - you're gonna vote for whom you like and for whom your gut tells you is the best person and if they don't come across well on TV (where most people get their news), then it's a tough road ahead. (Remember Kennedy/Nixon?) Of course, one does then have to wonder how the hell GW ever got elected - if there ever was a guy who looked dumber than a bunch of rocks, I'm not sure who that would be.

But this country is swamped with religious conservatives at the moment who are zealous in nature regarding their cause - most other folks aren't quite that zealous and thus don't have that unified drive that it takes to push a lot of votes to a candidate. And all it takes is GW to invoke some religious voodoo to get his masses all heated up. Personally, I'd like a president who kept Church and State separate and took care of business in a thoughful and certainly non-unilateral manner. It's fine if you're strongly religious, but do me a favor and keep it to yourself - it's your choice to be so, let me make my own choices.

Someday our President,whom we elect, needs to remember that although he ran on a party platform (in Bush's case, he has departed from the Republican platform and is performing on his own platform), he now represents ALL the people and can not cater to his own special interests. It takes quite a person to sometimes go against his own Party and choose wisely for EVERYONE. Will we find that person in 2004? We will, if people get off their lazy tushes and vote - Americans only have themselves to thank for the Patriot Act, the rape of the environment,etc,etc. - had more Americans voted, we'd wouldn't be in this quandry now. Time to shake off the cobwebs America and open your eyes.  

A Great Day for Golf

Only One shot away!
Michelle Wie, a 14-year-old ninth grader from Honolulu, missed the cut by only one stroke at the Sony Open in Hawaii, but that could hardly be viewed as falling short. It was the thrill of a young lifetime, a remarkable two days of golf and a showcase for the most-talked about amateur player since Tiger Woods. Wished I would have seen this - had to be great fun to be there and watch this. Now, it's back to the 9th grade for her. Her performance has to boggle the other professional's minds. Cranking out 300+ yard drives - whew. I'd be lucky to hit one 200 probably, but then I'm an ol' geezer, not a 14 year old with long legs and a beautiful swing. This will be a lady to watch! 

The Italian Job

If you haven't rented this DVD yet, you should. Great action stuff with Mark Walhberg, Ed Norton, and Charlize Theron (always nice to look at) and Ed Norton. Great car sequences with little mini Coopers. Also great sound effects in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround -I think I was deaf after the movie. LOL Holds your attention all the way through - lot of fun. Extra features on the DVD are interesting (how they made the movie,etc). That extrra stuff is always great - I am continually amazed at what talent goes into making movies - just the sheer organization of the whole project is mind boggling. Of course, when you have lots of moola, it helps. 

Hot Shazaam!

Is it true that when you eat celery, you burn more calories than you actually consume?

It may seem like wishful thinking to believe that such a "negative calorie" food exists, but in the case of celery, it appears to be true. According to several sources we found with a search on "celery burn calories," an 8-inch stalk of celery contains approximately 6 calories. But the mere act of digesting said stalk burns more than 6 calories, resulting in a negative caloric intake...

So, perhaps this means that if I eat like 10 lbs of celery a day and nothing else, I could actually starve myself to death? Anyone wanting to try that out?  

Yikes! Trans Fat Hell !

From a health newsletter I receive comes this lovely bit of information. Buyer beware!

Without naming any specific restaurants or brands, here are some
of the items tested and their TFA totals:

* One slice of double-cheese pizza - about half a gram of TFA
* Large order of French fries - 4 to 6 grams
* Chicken pot pie - 5 grams
* One sour cream glazed doughnut - 5 grams
* Five chicken nuggets - almost 4 grams
* Two spring rolls - 2 grams
* "Captain's" platter of fried shrimp, fish, clams, and scallops
- 22 grams

That last one is not a misprint: 22 grams of TFA!

According to at least one research report, a daily intake of
only one gram of TFA may increase the risk of heart disease by
as much as 20 percent. And a 2002 report from the National
Academy of Sciences concluded that, "the only safe intake of
trans-fat is zero."

Don't say I didn't warn you!  

Music Players - Which One?

Lots of Players, Little Harmony Interesting article in the NY Times on the bewildering choice offered consumers today. And this article doesn't even mention Flac type formats or Ogg Vorbis. Huh, you're asking?

I like the Ipod, but it won't play WMA files and for my ears, WMA sounds just fine when recorded at 64kbps and I have quite a few tunes already recorded in that format. But it will play Audible files which are audio books that I frequently listen to and in a level 4 format which is the superior format for those books. A big plus for the Ipod. But will it serve as a voice recorder? No. Will it rip directly from a source (such as a record player,tape deck, cd player,etc?) - No. Does it have an FM tuner? No. Other makers offer many of these options, but do they offer Audible? No, most do not, so they are all pointless for me. I WANT IT ALL! Aren't any of these manufacturer's listening to me??

Let me know if you've figured out the perfect solution! As the article points out, it ain't easy!  

Cold Mountain

Saw this movie over the past weekend. Had read the book by Charles Frazier when it first came out in '97(great book!), but had forgotten some of it. The movie brought back quite a bit, although the memory had grown foggy over the last 6 years. I'd give it 3.5 stars out of 4. The beginning battle scene at the battle of Petersburg near the end of the Civil War was awesome and hard to watch. I had remembered this particular scene from one of Jeff Shaara's books, The Last Full Measure . It made you realize how god awful war really is.

Some of the minor roles were excellently acted, almost overshadowing the major actors (Nicole Kidman, Jude Law, Renee Zellweger). The preacher whom Jude Law strings to a tree in the middle of town for trying to drown a young black girl, whom he has impregnated, is great in his role. He played a draq queen in a movie with DeNiro, but his name escapes me at the moment. It's hard to overshadow Kidman though, who is so visually stunning. (Almost hard to believe you would have found anyone so beautiful lurking around back then. LOL) Zellweger turns in quite a performance as the local peasant girl who helps Kidman on her farm while Jude Law is trekking homeward across the Appalachians (some gorgeous Appalachian scenes), although at times I think she goes a bit over the top. The book was outstanding and I think the movie is certainly worth seeing. Not for young kids though (some nudity) and battle scenes and a few others would be too rough. Rated R. Great on the big screen though (what isn't, huh?).

A quote from Amazon.com that recaps the book: "The hero of Charles Frazier's beautifully written and deeply-imagined first novel is Inman, a disillusioned Confederate soldier who has failed to die as expected after being seriously wounded in battle during the last days of the Civil War. Rather than waiting to be redeployed to the front, the soul-sick Inman deserts, and embarks on a dangerous and lonely odyssey through the devastated South, heading home to North Carolina, and seeking only to be reunited with his beloved, Ada, who has herself been struggling to maintain the family farm she inherited. Cold Mountain is an unforgettable addition to the literature of one of the most important and transformational periods in American history. "

Enjoy! 

Rover Lands on Mars!

NASA'S M2K4:Roaming the Red Planet Check out this very cool Flash site on the Rover mission to Mars. Watched this exciting moment on TV last night as it touched down and they had to wait about 10 minutes to finally hear the signals indicating that it was OK. You can imagine the tension in that control room.

This web site will tell you everything you want to know. Works of course quickly if you have a cable modem (broadband), but will work fine with dial-up modem, as long as you are patient. Highly recommended!

P.S. Unbeknownst to me (missed it in the news somehow), the Brits tried to land a craft on Mars on Christmas Day, but they have not yet heard back from it. For more news about that and attempts to find it, click here .

Update: I have to chuckle at a mention of the Beagle on Clive Soley's blog (I especially like the phrase "done a runner"!), "While I’m at it let’s give a quiet thought to the Beagle somewhere on Mars. That also was a great effort even if it has done a runner! A prize to the cartoonist as well who showed it following a Martian child back to his crater somewhere on Mars and saying to his mother “I don’t know where it came from - it just followed me home”!"

 

Desktop Sidebar - Nice Feature

Desktop Sidebar Home Page You might want to check this out - a floating sidebar that can autohide and will display all kinds of useful info for you. Been experimenting with it today and like what I see so far, although I'm seeing a memory footprint of 13-18mb. Still, if you have at least 512mb of memory, shouldn't be a big issue or if you have few other programs running. Unlike myself, who loves to cram a million programs on his computer.

In the comments section below, please post any new cool electronic gadgets you got for Xmas, so I will now know what to buy! Got that gadget thirst, which I didn't satisfy at Xmas!

Hope you all have a great 2004 and stick to those resolutions! (I don't even bother anymore! LOL )  

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Hope everyone is out there having a great time today! After a trip home to visit my Dad, we are heading back to Virginia with our 2 cats. Another interesting adventure, I'm sure. It's been rather hectic on the home front, so I haven't had the opportunity to post - should be able to start that back up soon, although more in-laws are descending upon us when we arrive back in Virginia. Sure good to visit with everyone over the holidays though.

Update:
Made it to Lexington, KY where I am typing this. Everything closed on the trip down, except for Waffle House's and truck stops. Stopped at a Flying J truck stop and had an excellent buffet with very friendly folks. Wireless Internet Access at Flying J's for $1.95/hour which is really cheap - didn't try it out, but nice to know as there are many of those around. Our cats were the best on the trip down. Are now hiding under the bed in our motel room, which is the same thing they did on the trip up! Weird - must feel safe though. If you didn't get any Xmas greetings this year and need one, then visit this site. Thanks to my Arkie bud for that one.